Sigh... there they go again...

I got this all the time from freepers and knuckle-draggers on Facebook who made it a point to spew, and sometimes even post, on MY page mind you, their hostile CONservative clap-trap and anti-Obama revisionism and anti-choice screeds. Taking issue with every post I added or shared to MY page. Let me say again - MY PAGE. And when I'd object they'd start ragging on me with various versions of "you liberals always talk about freedom of speech, well screw you..." I do NOT want political toxins and other NON-truths polluting MY Facebook page. And I'll remind them of that old adage about "your freedom to take random swings at me stops at the tip of my nose," and "your freedom to yell 'FIRE!' anywhere you feel like it stops at a crowded theater or other space."

All these wonderful Freedoms that the wrong-wing exploits and yammers about - COME WITH RESPONSIBILITY. You have to exercise these freedoms intelligently. You have to own the fact that actions carry consequences. Since you happen to be sharing a planet with a few BILLION other people, you DO have to take the impact of your exercise of your freedoms on others into account.

Yes, technically, you do indeed have the right to shout "FIRE!" anywhere you want. Even IN a crowded theater. There's no law saying you can't. But you just freakin' DON'T DO IT. It's wrong, it's horribly thoughtless and inconsiderate, it's rude, it's reckless, and it's dangerous. And it's stupid as hell! And if you did it just to get your kicks, then YOU are a selfish thoughtless anti-social SCHMUCK and such behavior ought to deprive you of far more freedoms than simply the freedom of speech.

It's freedom of SPEECH. NOT freedom to fuck with. At least in my opinion.

Thank you sir - for defining P.U.M.A. for me!

I could NOT remember what it stands for, so I appreciate this refresher!

Party. Unity. My. Ass.

They just assume the worst, prompted by IDIOTS like jon kyl who get their facts from up their asses.

Welcome to DU! I think you've nailed the pathology perfectly!

It's part of the CEO mentality some of us have been considering for awhile - the CEO is king of his/her own little fiefdom - the company or corporation. The CEO is at the top of the proverbial ziggurat, at the point of greatest power, worship, admiration, leadership, even damn near deification. No one says "no" to the CEO. Because their own jobs and positions and upward mobility is at stake, so they know strategically it's far better for their own self-interest to bow and scrape and serve the CEO ("I like being able to fire people who serve me&quot while the CEO is the king, emperor, sultan, master of the universe, and all others are subservient and beholden unto them. The CEO is the one holding the leash(es) and everyone else underneath the CEO in the pecking order knows his/her place is with those leashes around the neck.

NO ONE dares to say no to the CEO. NO ONE tells the CEO anything but "yes, sir" or "yes, ma'am." So the CEO comes to believe in his or her own omnipotence. The whole "masters of the universe" thing in "Barbarians at the Gate" and "Bonfire of the Vanities." And when things don't work out, the CEO has no template for accepting or coping with that. When you're treated like a god, the last thing you're open to is your own fall from the celestial heights.

Yes indeed, Kalidurga, thanks for the reminders of recent history - which should NOT be forgotten.

There are some key triggers that get pulled in this campaign that provide tipping points for many of us for various reasons.

I'm stopped automatically before I even get inside the proverbial city limits with these guys because they're anti-choice. HOWEVER, if I got past that to continue considering them and not flatly ruling them out on the choice issue, I would be stopped where Roger Simon of Politico said he got stopped. He wrote in one recent column that what he was still having serious trouble with was that incident at wrongney's prep school in which he grabbed some kid whose hair style he didn't like, knocked him to the ground, and forcibly cut his hair - in front of a bunch of other kids and cohorts of his and other assorted goons-in-training who helped hold the kid down and cheered him on.

"And there is another thing that troubles me even though some dismiss it as trivial. I am still bothered by Romney attacking that gay kid and cutting off his hair with a pair of scissors when they were in prep school.
A ghetto kid does that and he gets booked for assault with a deadly weapon. But what does the son of a governor get? A law degree from Harvard."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81367_Page2.html#ixzz27AP2mfte

If I knew nothing more about wrongney than this (well, I'm omitting the whole shameless Seamus affair on the roof of the family car), I would be seriously soured on the guy. A nice person doesn't do that shit. A true gentleman doesn't do that shit. A follower of Jesus doesn't do that shit. A person with TRUE class and nobility doesn't do that shit. I know all I need to know about mitt wrongney. How he treats others over whom/which he has power - is disturbing. Just plain ol' DISTURBING. Someone like him has NO business being President.

I vaguely remember that show. Welcome to DU, btw, Delmette!

Good point here. Her ladyship ayn of dressage has NO CLUE about how "hard" it is. Yes, I understand about campaigning being hard. I covered a few campaign events when I was still working as a reporter, and I do have at least a limited sense of it. But with that much money in her family's accounts and a husband who's that rich and influential, I'm sorry, but she doesn't get to complain about how hard she has it. Anyone with a fortune that obscenely huge forfeits the right to complain about how hard things are for them.

Yes, campaigning is hard. But is she worried whether she and mittski have a place to stay in the next stops on their campaign tour? Does she worry that their staff and other campaign entourage members have a place to stay - that they'll all get fed and paid and have all the stuff they need to work with? All the computers and laptops and web accounts and media handouts and stuff? Is she worried that there'll be enough in the campaign credit card to pay for enough diesel in the tour bus to get them to the next venue?

Does she worry about whether her sons and their families will be able to scrape by after she and hubby are gone? Does she worry that her grandchildren won't have a decent start in life? Or that they too often go to school with empty stomachs?

And yes, I also understand that she has some serious ailments. She's still fairly young. Does she worry that she won't have enough money for treatment as her health declines over the rest of her life? Or that she will have just enough, but it'll leave the rest of her family bankrupt? Certainly, it'll be hard for her, personally, in the years ahead, what with MS and all (AND having to live with him!) but her difficulties and pain and physical deterioration will be softened and VERY well-cushioned by that fabulous fortune her husband has amassed. AND THERE'LL STILL BE TONS OF MONEY LEFT OVER!!! NO MATTER WHAT HER LIFETIME TREATMENT MIGHT COST THEM!!!!!! She really CAN afford the finest medical care that money can buy. Hell, he set her up with DRESSAGE forcryingoutloud when she needed physical therapy! The rest of us have to make do with the gym or the "Y" or regular walks around the neighborhood.

Money can't buy happiness, that's certainly true. But it sure can buy a lot of comfort to get you through the times when you're unhappy. She should shut up, get off her high horse, and thank her God that SHE'S lucky enough to be in the exalted, rarified-air position she's in. And she should try a little humility for a change. Might do her some good.

scott brown already IS an empty chair.

I saw some clips of that debate. Even in short bites, he sounded like a surprisingly dim bulb.

I'm surprised that the people of Massachusetts actually fell for this guy. THAT is what replaced Ted Kennedy?????

SOOOOOO glad this happened!

I LOVE it that Jon Stewart is on our side. His demographic is smart, young, large, reality-based, and of the generation that's coming up into power in the next 10 - 20 years. Like my daughter's generation. And my son's. And all their friends'.

Our kids are like sooooooo many others their age - who are finally going to kill the prejudice against gays, and possibly other prejudices as well, once and for all. Or else they're gonna bring acceptance closer and more widespread, and more mainstream, than ever. 'Cause they all grew up around, near, and sometimes with families that were composed of every combination of adult and child. From every part of the world. Devoted to every religion imaginable. Single heads of households. Same-sex partnerships. Mixed-race couples. And all of the above with children of a wide variety of ages and both genders, from multiple nationalities. And not ONE moment of it, or person of it, or any other aspect of it makes ANY difference to anyone around them whatsoever. As our daughter likes to say, a bit derisively, in situations like this - "no one cares."

Welcome to DU!

Their pool of interest is declining because of the older demos they cater to. The same sort of (mainly) male embittered, resentful closet-racists (who now have another excuse to resent minorities and women for "taking their jobs&quot . And Pox loves to exploit this demographic and prey upon their insecurities and YES, their own self-proclaimed "victimhood." Yep, it's THEIR side that's always whining and playing the victim with all these imagined and presumed "grievances" about this fer-ners and n-words and Muslims and Mexicans and uppity women who should really know their place.

Nobody plays the "victim" card like the republi-CONS - that's what's so astoundingly absurd about wrongney's private-meeting blather that we saw on that video. NOBODY plays the "victim" card, or embraces it SO desperately, and carries on about all their many grievances against that shitty awful librul media/librul takeover/librul fill-in-the-blank-here-as the-situation-warrants. NOBODY has more imagined "grievances" than these people. It's just dumb-founding.

Anyway, we're glad you're here, we need you, and you know what to do.



Now get to work.

THAT may be the real reason.

They're making an investment in their own future. Just like the republi-CON speakers at their CONvention.