Poll_Blind
Poll_Blind's JournalI always felt that through NO fault of their own, the Admins here got kind of a raw deal...
...by affiliating the website so closely to the Democratic party. Well, not the Democratic party of 2000. But who could have foreseen how things would change?
I think the Admins here, and this is just my opinion, know what's going on with the Democratic party and they probably don't like it much either. Do they dislike the situation as much as I do? Probably not.
Meh. But I don't consider them Third Way types, either. They live in a different part of the country, have different backgrounds than I do and I'm sure they see things differently. But I don't think all that different.
What they couldn't have done is foreseen a Democratic Party whose leadership took a nosedive into rightist, Third Way (at best) politics. It puts them in a shitty situation because they still want to be politically relevant on some level- i.e. some connection to the Democratic Party, but how far can they distance themselves from some of the odious policies of same while still tending to that affiliation?
It's a weird situation for us and for the Admins, too.
I'm not sure how much else can be said. I'd love to live in a world where Democratic Underground's administrators spent more time working a populist angle, inviting more leftist personalities to be part of the site (at least in the form of interviews, etc.). But I'm not so sure that's what the admins really want to do with DU. They may, as I think has been kind of made clear, really want to get on with other projects in their life and maybe turning DU into...well...a sort of forum empire of sorts...
Well...maybe that's not what they're interested in doing.
And so things kind of remain how they are.
I hope that makes sense.
PB
No, no. Now stop it. I'm 40. I know if I go snorting German Chocolate cake mix powder that...
...I'll get what the French call "Le Bogey Noir"
PB
FICTION IS DEAD: Brazilian Rats On Steroids Are The Hot New Puppy
Brazilian Rats On Steroids Are The Hot New Puppy
FICTION IS DEAD. STARE INTO THE DEADLIGHTS OF THE REAL.
PB
North Korea's "U.S. Mainland Strike Plan" released, shows targets. Did YOU make the cut?
Once they leave North Korean airspace, most DPRK rockets seek out the nearest embassy and request citizenship and a hot meal. However, the "U.S. Mainland Strike Plane" (presumably for a ballistic missile attack) was released by the DPRK today, so get out your tickets and see if you're a winner!
Targets are....
Hawaii
San Diego
Washington D.C.
and...(apparently) Austin, Texas
Please recycle your tickets. Tickets may only be redeemed by North Korean ballistic missiles or their legal designates. Tickets only good for one drawing/nuclear attack.
More photoanalysis, here:
ANALYSIS - North Korean Photo Reveals U.S. Mainland Strike Plan.
PB
When a member of a minority group doesn't agree with advocacy groups, whose opinion has more weight?
The member of the minority group or the advocacy group?
In real life, I've known African-Americans, LGBTQ Americans, Jewish Americans, American women and Latinos who have, on occasion, disagreed strongly with or found offensive the positions of advocacy groups which purport to defend them.
Is the burden on an individual member of a minority group to conform to the standards the advocacy group proposes, or on the advocacy group to encompass most or all viewpoints within that minority group?
PB
Sinister interpretations of otherwise normally explainable events: The Umbrella Man
I just stumbled on this infinitely useful 6-minute mini-doc by Errol Morris and I thought I'd share it.
This documentary is, I suppose, well, you could say it was about The Umbrella Man. The Umbrella Man was a "mysterious" figure holding an open black umbrella, captured in the Zapbruder film of Kennedy's assassination.
But this beautiful little bit of documentary film-making isn't about the Kennedy assassination, The Umbrella Man or conspiracy theories at all: It's about how we research history and how, as we turn up the magnification of the lense (as is so often is possible in the digital age), the stranger and more distorted the picture may become.
PB
Sherry West may have a bipolar or schizophrenic disorder and that may be...
...the cause of her communication, her behavior in the interviews has seemed "off" to some. She may or may not have been under the influence of medication to treat this disorder at the time she was attacked and her baby murdered. I just came across a video article Sherry West's story questioned by daughter after baby killed
Glassey tells First Coast News she hopes her suspicions are wrong but based on conversations with her mother she's not sure. Glassey described their discussions by saying her mother is crying one minute and then sounds fine the next.
"I spoke with the detectives and investigators and the evidence leads to many witnesses, not just me," said Sherry West, mother of the 13-month-old that was killed last Thursday morning.
Glassey says her mother is bipolar and has schizophrenic tendencies. She believes her mother is on medication but could not tell me any prescriptions specifically.
"She changed her story she told me the baby was shot first and then she told me she was shot first," said Glassey.
I knew a guy my age (worked with him, was friends with him outside of work) who suffered from schizophrenia. I watched him deteriorate over a number of years, and saw what the drugs did to him. They kept the schizophrenia under control, but they also...they reduced his emotional level and intellectual capacity considerably. And the disease? He could laugh one minute and drop into a depressive spiral in a snap of your fingers. Watching Sherry West give interviews I don't see anything amiss but I can imagine how others might not be able to fit her responses into the rubric they normally use to assess normal human emotion in a situation like that.
I just want to make it clear: From all the evidence so far, the worst thing Sherry West did was be a overweight middle aged woman suffering from a bipolar schizophrenic disorder pushing her baby down the street, trying to enjoy a day she otherwise might have spent shut inside, when she and her infant were targets of a heinous crime.
She may have diminished mental capacity. She may have been on prescription drugs to treat a serious mental disorder. From her own admission, she didn't get out much. She may have had her eight year old daughter taken away from her. Her older teenage son was killed years before in an apparent attempt to kill another boy.
Her life, it appears, had been broken into many pieces before the tragedy unfolded.
But none of those things, none of those mistakes, or disorders or bad life choices or any of that put a gun to her infant's head and pulled the trigger. None of those awful, embarrassing or downright ugly aspects of her life shot her twice.
Those things will not be on trial for murder.
If neither she nor anyone else is to be tried for those things by the police, why should we put her on trial for them now?
PB
Wait, wait- I thought that was Kathy Griffin?
No, I'm wrong...THIS is Kathy Griffin:
Wait, isn't that Carrot Top?
No- sorry. I'm wrong again. THIS is Carrot Top:
Oh sweet Jesus what have I done?
PB
BBC: Voyager craft 'exits' Solar System
Voyager craft 'exits' Solar SystemIf confirmed, it would be the first man-made object to do so.
Launched in September 1977, the probe was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.
Researchers who have studied its data indicate it has now entered a realm of space beyond the influence of our Sun.
In related news, a number of geostationary satellites held a press conference requesting help from law enforcement agencies in order to recover missing articles which they'd loaned Voyager 1 and which they fear will not be returned.
"It's not like he's going to run off beyond the ecliptic!" interjected LES 8, another mid-70's vintage satellite. "Look, Vee and I were pals and he's not the kind of celestial hardware to go off and do something like this. Last time I saw him, he was talkin about some Spanish dancing girl he met. Talked about her eyes all the time. You ask me, she's the one behind this. If he's got that Spanish girl out beyond Pluto...well, I can kiss my favorite pocket knife goodbye. Gerald Ford gave that to me personally."
PB
Profile Information
Member since: 2003 before July 6thNumber of posts: 23,864
