McCamy Taylor
McCamy Taylor's JournalHow Much Money Will Super Pacs Spend on the 2012 Presidential Election?
I propose a contest. Guess how much Super Pac money will be spent only on the presidential part of the 2012 election.
In 2008, $1.3 billion were spent by the two candidates. I predict that this amount will be reached again---and that it will be dwarfed by Super Pac spending fueled by special interests that have cut jobs while raking in huge profits. And the banks, which have squirreled away their bailout money to use as an election slush fund. And by Big Oil that continues to get government subsidies to price gouge us. Since the various special interests---Big Oil, Big Pharm, Insurance, Banking, Retail sector--have competing interests, as one group gives, the others will give, too, in hopes of controlling the White House in 2013-2017. Because what is good for Big Oil may not benefit United Health. And what makes Pfizer profits may not do much for J.P. Morgan. And with the federal government circling the bankruptcy toilet thanks to all the corporate welfare handed out by Bush. Jr, there will be only so much federal money to go around in the next four years, and everyone of the special interests cited above will want to get all of that money, even if it means starving every other sector of the economy to death.
Ok. I'm guessing $10 billion in SuperPac spending.
Sleep apnea---the most commonly missed common problem in the US.
If you have migraine headches, fibromyalgia, memory impairment, uncontrolled high blood pressure, middle of the night insomnia, middle of the night chest pain (that is not GERD), middle of the night strokes, congestive heart failure for no reason, erectile dysfunction, lots of traffic accidents or a first degree relative with sleep apnea....
You may be one of the millions of Americans (about 10% of Americans over 40) that has OSA and does not know it (about 80% of that 10% of all Americans). And you will not suspect it, because the number one sign---snoring and choking at night---happens only when you are asleep and stops just before you wake up.
I have OSA. It made my life a mess for years before I realized what was really wrong with me. Now, I am back to work and feel great. And no, you do not have to be morbidly obese or a man to have sleep apnea.
Here is a resource for anyone who wants to learn more about this common, common, common---but missed, missed, missed---diagnosis available at Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Never-Needed-Obstructive-ebook/dp/B007USP5UA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334790286&sr=8-1
If you know that something is wrong with you but no one has been able to tell you what it is or make it better, consider the possibility that you have a sleep disorder. Sleep apnea is not the only sleep disorder. Restless leg syndrom, bruxism etc. can also cause problems. But OSA is one of the nastiest in terms of what it will do to your body if you do not diagnosis it. My grandmother was an OSA casuality. Got up from the bed in the middle of the night to use the bathroom like she did multiple times every night, was dizzy and confused probably from lack of oxygen, fell down the stairs and suffered an intracranial bleed.
Time for an Obama "Let's SAVE Medicare" Tour of the Nation
Once again, the GOP House has voted to replace Medicare with vouchers. The vouchers will be given to Republican SuperPac donors like Aetna and Blue Cross. In return, Aetna and Blue Cross will give the nation's seniors limited choice, sky high deductibles and copayments. And they will refuse to write policies for the 25% of Medicare recipients who used up 80% of Medicare's fund becasue they are sick with serious illness like cancer and heart failure. If the 25% is lucky, their state's Medicaid program will pick up the slack. If they are unlucky, they will die prematurely from lack of access to health care.
And, once again, the Washington Post has launched its "Obama wants to chainsaw massacre Medicare" campaign, something they do every time the GOP House gets together to act like a bunch of frat boys who could care less what AARP says about them next fall.
Therefore, I think it is time for our president to hit the road, touring cities with high percentages of elderly folks who depend upon their Medicare for their lives. He should visit research and teaching hospitals that are able to stay in business because their elderly, sick population is insured. He should visit nursing homes and senior citizens centers. He should make it clear that he is not willing to see the elderly sacrificed in the name of greater corporate progress.
If Obama is too busy, Michelle can go. And take the kids once they get out of school. Old folks love kids.
Remember, if we lose this election, we will lose Medicare for good---because the private insurers know that as long as Medicare exists, the nation can expand it to cover all citizens. And Mittens is in the pocket of the health insurance industry.
Obama is a Conservative…Only If You Think Equal Rights are Optional
Some people do not know the meaning of the word “conservative.”
A “conservative” is NOT someone whose DOJ enforces federal laws. He is not someone who bargains with the other party in power. (Remember the political acrobatics that LBJ and VP Humphrey performed in order to squeeze out Medicare and the Civil Rights Act?) He is not a president who failed to enact single payer health care as an executive order after Congress proved not to be up to the task. He is not someone who escalates the war in Afghanistan and hunts down Osama Bin Laden---that’s just called keeping a campaign promise. A conservative isn’t even someone who attacks the members of his own party who have different views.
You can only call Obama a “conservative” if you believe that equal justice is a luxury that has to take a back seat towards improving the economy. And yes, I guess if you are white and heterosexual and not a Muslim and not handicapped---if you drew a winning lottery ticket at birth, equal rights for those less fortunate than yourself may seem less important than money. Your money.
When I look at the current administration, I see a no tolerance for gay-bashing policy that is light years ahead of anything we have had before. Which former president threatened to cut off aid to schools that tolerate the bullying of gays? I see the first efforts by the DOJ to enforce the Voting Rights Act in a decade. I see the equal pay for women act---and an administration that is not afraid to cut off Medicaid funds to states that seek to deny women choice. I see a president who is not afraid to stand up for Planned Parenthood and the rights of a young Black man to walk down the streets of America without having to worry that his skin color (or choice of dress) will scare the shit out of vigilante with a gun.
If we want to see real and lasting improvement in the financial well being of workers, we can not adopt a "Let me get mine first and then the ____s can have a taste, too" policy. Every woman who is paid 74 cents on the dollar is wage depression for you. Every young Hispanic denied an education is an underpaid no benefits worker who will keep your salary and benefits low. Every young Black man sent to a for profit prison where he is paid pennies an hour to be a telemarkter is more taxes for you and less jobs for you. Every closeted, frightened gay is a worker who will take whatever shit the boss dishes out---which means more shit for all of us.
No man is an island, and that includes you, dude.
Now, I want to ask a question. How would you define journalists who accused Obama of wanting to chainsaw massacre Medicare every time the GOP House votes to end Medicare and replace it with private insurance subsidies that will enrich the coffers of Aetna, Blue Cross and United Health---without actually guaranteeing seniors the care they need?
I would define them as shills for the GOP. Yes, Washington Post, I am talking about you. The Washington Post wants you to know that Obama is going to destroy Medicare. They---and the people who quote them as if the WaPo is the voice of God---are going to assail you with this same old tired story, “Obama is a Republican in disguise” all the way up until November, because they are scared shitless that you might remember instead that the House has voted twice to abolish Medicare. Let me repeat that again, in bold letters this time:
The House has voted twice to end Medicare.
!!!!
On reflection, maybe Obama is a conservative---when it comes to conserving the gains the country made under FDR and LBJ. Maybe those who point fingers at him and call him “conservative” are actually pissed that he is not more reactionary.
“A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.” FDR
To sum up the GOP health care plan for the country….Just Die.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/21/the-most-outrageous-quote_n_506288.html#s74885&title=A_Chavez_Tactic
Looks like the nation's seniors are not dying fast enough to suit the GOP. That is why Republicans are taking matters into their own hands. Here is what the party has planned for us. Call it the Just Die! prescription for America.
Medicare will be phased out. No, this is not because the President has decided to “chainsaw massacre” Medicare. The GOP House has voted twice to kill the program that has served America's disabled and elderly for over half a century. Your mother will be given a small sum with which to purchase health care “in the free market.” For those of you with mothers less than 65, you know how successful she has been at finding an insurer willing to write her an individual policy. (Yeah, yeah. I am being sarcastic). She will have even less luck once she is over 65.
Poor elderly should still be able to qualify for Medicaid. However, as we have learned today, Medicaid nursing home payments will be phased out. Once your mother has sold her house and run through her savings, the nursing home will come after YOU for payment. If you do not have $80,000 a year lying around, you will be more than welcome to take her home with you. One of the breadwinners can quit work to stay with her round the clock. If you are not married, you are shit out of luck, because there will be no paycheck coming in to pay for rent, utilities etc. Soon, you and your elderly mom will be living at the nearest homeless shelter along with your (now homeless) children. I wonder if the Union Gospel Mission supplies Depends and tube feedings.
Meanwhile, your mom can say “Hello again!” to that pesky donut hole that requires her to spend thousands out of pocket for overpriced prescription medications. This will cause her chronic health conditions to worsen, putting her one step closer to that nursing home that she (and her family) will not be able to afford.
How many of you have already exceeded your “lifetime” dollar limit for healthcare without even noticing it? You will find out just as soon as the SCOTUS strikes down the health care law and your insurer tells you that you have already had your fair share of dialysis/chemotherapy/congestive heart failure treatment so please go somewhere and die.
If you haven’t used up your lifetime allowance, you may still find that your health insurer drops you, simply because you have gotten sick. That is another part of “Obama Care” that the GOP cannot stand. How dare Americans expect health insurers to keep their part of the bargain! Aetna writes insurance policies to make money, not to feed your need for frivolous life saving medication. Oh, and more good news for Aetna. It can now spend all of the money it collects in premiums on CEO bonuses and stock dividends and NONE of it on actual health care. Thank you, GOP!
Your children aged 18-26 will no longer be able to get insurance through your employer . Those who are supporting themselves with fast food industry McJobs while waiting for the economy to turn around will have no medical care. This will be a problem for young women more than young men, since women 18-25 are at the peak of their fertility and need good, affordable birth control.
Your daughter aged 18-26 who can no longer get health insurance through your job will no longer be able to get birth control through Planned Parenthood if she lives in one of the “red” states like Texas which are slashing women’s access to health care in the name of ending abortion. You and your mom will no longer be able to get breast cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes screenings at subsidized clinics, because the “red” states like Texas as slashing ALL women’s access to health care---in the name of ending abortion.
Your daughter age 18-26 will no longer be able to get an abortion when the condom breaks, because the GOP plans to outlaw the morning after pill---and all birth control pills, because they can be used as morning after pills and IUDs because they prevent implantation not fertilization and your mom’s rheumatoid arthritis medication because it can also be used to terminate a pregnancy. And, when they get one more Scalia on the Supreme Court, they will overturn Roe v. Wade, opening the door for states to declare that life begins at conception and any women who travels to a “blue” state for the morning after pill is a first degree murderer.
Your daughter age 18-26 who develops severe eclampsia during that unplanned pregnancy will no longer have the option of delivering early to save her life. That means two tombstones, one for her and one for the fetus that will not survive long once its mother is dead from a brain hemorrhage.
Those of you with chronic health problems like high blood pressure who were (briefly) able to get insurance in high risk pools, despite your pre-existing conditions will now be uninsured (and uninsurable) again. So be sure to get as much done in the next few months as possible, because it may be years before you can afford to see a doctor---in this country. I hear that health care is pretty decent and a whole lot cheaper in Mexico.
Your special needs child? She will now be uninsurable again, unless one of her parents quits their jobs so that the family is poor enough to qualify for SCHIP or Medicaid. This means you will have a choice. Become Bob Crachitt and hope that some kind hearted Scrooge takes pity on your little Tiny Tim. Or, read your daughter the part of Little Women in which Beth dies so that she will know how beautiful her own death can be.
And all you folks who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid who have been holding your breath until 2014 when you will finally be able to get affordable health insurance for your pre-existing high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, heart disease---continue holding your breath until you turn blue and die. That is Republican health care.
Guns Don't Kill People. Hoodies Kill People.
As long as there have been victims, there have been people blaming the victims. You don't think it's fair that I kicked your teeth in with my steel toed boot? Why did your teeth get in the way of my steel toed boot?
Victims get victimized all over again by society---police, lawyers, the press---when they are told "Didn't you realize that wearing____ could get you killed???" Sometimes, society seems so eager to blame the victim---and defend the perp---that it comes up with fashion rules that would make the Taliban proud.
The classic example---and still used by defense attorneys in courtrooms to this day---is the old "Men don't rape women. Short skirts rape women." A woman walking down the road in a short skirt is just asking to be attacked. If she left her panty-hose at home, she is practically begging to be assaulted. Doesn't matter if the young woman in question is a minor. Doesn't matter if the rapist is someone who should know better, like her priest. That's because the man didn't do the crime. The short skirt did.
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/archbishop-dolan-bashes-church-rape-victims/news/2012/01/09/32869
Guys, whatever you do, don't wear skinny jeans. Skinny jeans will get you beaten with a baseball bat.
http://www.carltonjordan.com/2012/02/08/attacked-for-being-gay-brandon-white-speaks-out/
Lesbians, that short hair will get your head slammed on a pavement.
http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/australia-news/victoria-news/2008/12/17/lesbian-attacked-in-street/36635
In the wake of 9/11:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/atta-s15.shtml
There is something very wrong about a member of the press telling us that we are not free to choose our own clothing. This is the same press that defends its right to free speech the way that a mother bear defends her cub. I own three hoodies and none of them has a big red target on the back. What's more, if I walked down the street wearing all three of them, one on top of the other, I would not be shot by some trigger happy community watch--because I am short, female and white.
So how can Geraldo say that the hoodie is as responsible as the gunman? Even he admits that is the Black or Latino youth inside the hoodie that is responsible....
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2012/03/geraldo-rivera-blames-hoodie-for-trayvon-martins-death/1
You heard it from Geraldo. Whatever you do, don't get caugt walking outdoors in America wearing the wrong color skin.
Three Old Dudes Desperately Seeking (to Be) Ronald Reagan
Romney says “I don’t see how a young American can vote for a Democrat.” Why is Romney appealing for the support of the section of the population that votes the least? Trick question. He isn’t. Dear old Mittens wants to appear hip, trendy. He wants Republican voters to recognize the star appeal that will help him breeze through the general election---even though he is limping through his own party’s primary.
“Young” in politics mean “maverick”. It means “glamour.” It means “I’d offer that guy a beer.” It was what Reagan was able to project through his two term presidency even as he slipped into dementia. Because face it, there will always be something intrinsically “hip” about an actor president who can count of the support of Hollywood’s A List. “Cowboy” never really goes out of fashion.
Romney is trying his best to acquire a thin veneer of “style over substance.” He is not alone.
Insurgency. Oh yeah, baby. The man who wants to return to the dark ages of back alley abortions and burning homosexuals at the stake is telling us that he is a rebel. Practically James Dean.
Is there room for three on the Ronald Reagan bandwagon? You bet!
“In the increasingly rough Republican campaign, no candidate has wrapped himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan more often than Newt Gingrich,” writes Elliot Abrams in the National Review.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/289159/gingrich-and-reagan-elliott-abrams
How is Newt like Ronnie Baby? Let me count the ways. Ummm… they both have a Y chromosome. Other than that, I can’t think of two politicians within the same party who are more unalike. Romney was able to court crossover voters with his “I’m just one of you” style. Newt, if nominated, will mobilize Democratic voters, too. They will come to the polls in record numbers to cast straight party Democratic tickets as their way of thumbing their nose at a guy who is only just barely tolerated by his own party and despised by everyone else.
Show of hands. Who here wants to kick back on the porch and drink a beer with Newt? With Rick? With Mittens?
Forget substance for a moment. We are talking style here. Who is the candidate with the Hollywood A List support? Who is the one who can say (with feeling) “I know where you’re coming from. I’ve been there, too”? Who is the one who would not look like an idiot riding a Harley-Davidson? Answer those questions and you will know who gets the all-important working class “I won’t vote for a guy I wouldn’t drink a beer with” vote this fall.
Healthcare resources being wasted on pre-abortion ultrasounds could be better spent....
.... making birth control more affordable so that fewer women will have unplanned pregnancies that require termination.
...on dental care for the millions of Americans on Medicaid who can get their hearts fixed but lose all their teeth.
...on school fitness programs to combat the epidemic of juvenile onset Type 2 diabetes.
...educating young people about the dangers of tobacco.
...handing out condoms to prevent the spread of Hepatitis and HIV.
....providing mental health care to folks BEFORE they decide to go on a wild shooting spree.
....on school meals for kids who do not get enough to eat at home.
Right now, in your Texas city, there is at least one man with excrutiating abdominal pain due to gallstones who can not get his problem diagnosed (much less treated) because there is no law requiring that he be given an ultrasound----and he can not afford to pay for it out of his own pocket.
Right now, in your state, there is a woman with a gynecologic tumor who can not afford the tests that would identify her problem early, before it has spread. Where is the Texas state law that insists that she be given an ultrasound?
Right now, in your neighborhood, there is someone who needs a stress echocardiogram (another kind of ultrasound) to figure out why he is having chest pain. But he doesn't have health insurance, so good luck with that.
If Texas state legislators were really "Pro-Life" they would not turn down federal money to help women get breast and cervical cancer screening. They would not cut Medicaid benefits for cancer patients and disabled children. Their governor would not call for the end of Medicaid---the health insurance program that takes care of so many pregnant women and their children.
The state would not rank near the bottom in percentage of people insured---
Infant mortality rates for some groups in some parts of the state are in the double digits. If Texas legislators love life so god damned much, why aren't they doing more about that?
18 cents: Why Our Wombs are a Political Battlefield
Cato Institute paper, 1984
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa038.html
In the 1960s, before birth control became safe and legal, women made 59 cents for every dollar men made. Employers justified this wage discrimination by citing the unreliability of female workers. Women got pregnant. Women had children. Women with kids missed work. Women could not devote themselves to their companies the way that men could, therefore they did not deserve promotions. Women’s “delicate condition” rendered them unfit to do high paid factory and construction work, though no one seemed to mind when they worked long, grueling hours in the pink collar ghetto, scrubbing floors, canning fish or sewing in sweat shops.
Women in the workplace were shamed for doing what they had to do to support their families. A woman who could not hold onto a man with a high paying job was deemed a failure. With her self-esteem battered and bruised, the female worker did not dare raise her voice to demand a better wage or better work conditions. She was just there “temporarily”, said her boss. The minute she got a man, she would quit. The minute she spread her legs and conceived a child, she would demand maternity leave. Or get a back alley abortion and die and leave her employer in the lurch. She was a liability. The boss only kept her on out of a sense of charity. She didn’t deserve more than 59 cents on the dollar---
Then came safe, legal birth control. Then came the right to (safely) terminate an unwanted pregnancy. And suddenly women could say, with confidence, “I can do the same job a man can do.” As a result, the wage discrepancy between women and men has been declining in the last few decades. The change has been slow. Women have gained a half cent a year, so that by 2010 we were making 77 cents compared to the dollar men made for comparable work.
http://www.pay-equity.org/info-time.html
Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but when you are living on the edge of poverty, that extra 18 cents an hour can mean the difference between food on the table and none. It can enable a battered wife to break away from her abusive spouse. It can pay the tuition for night school, so that women can climb out of the pink collar ghetto.
Eighteen cents is chump change to the employers of this country. And yet, they begrudge it to the women who raise this country’s children. And they dread having to hand over that other 33 cents that they currently pocket as profit. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, enacted by the Democratic Congress and signed into law by President Obama is a thorn in the side of the Right. The National Association of Manufacturers lobbied against it, on the ground that existing legislation was more than adequate to protect the rights of women---even though existing legislation still left women in this country 33 cents short.
http://www.nam.org/~/media/1C646E08B3F5440AAE75145BCB33689A/NAMLedbetterOppositionLtr7Jan2009v4.pdf
Dixie Cup, aka the Koch Brothers, aka the Cato Institute declared that the law was a “Sword of Damocles” that threatened the economy----because, apparently, the economy only thrives when women do the same work as men for a fraction of their wage.
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/fair-pay-act-will-only-further-damage-economy/
In the face of federal legislation that makes it easier for women to sue for past wage discrimination, what is the right wing to do? Answer, strip away the reproductive rights that women have gained. Deny women birth control. Force them to give birth to children they cannot afford.
Then, the Dixie Cup manufacturers of this nation can assert, with confidence, “I don’t need to pay that woman an equal wage. She will just get pregnant and leave me in the lurch. Seventy-seven cents is too much for her. She should be happy with the 59 cents her mother made.” Never mind that single mothers in this country are overwhelming working mothers and that maternity leave is a luxury almost unheard of in the U.S.A.
The Koch Brothers don’t give a damn about your unborn child. Newt Gingrich could care less that your IUD may prevent implantation. Mitt Romney does not lose sleep at night knowing that your employer sponsored health insurance pays for your birth control pill. What they really care about is that 18 cents that women’s reproductive rights have cost them---and the 33 cents they stand to lose if the current trend continues.
And for all you guys out there, remember. When the wages of women and minorities are kept artificially low, all workers get paid less. Law of supply and demand.
“Needless to say, sexism emerged as a source of outrageous super-profits for the capitalists.”
Angela Davis Women, Race & Class
Grown Ups Don't Shoot Laptops
For over a week I have resisted watching Tommy Jordan’s You Tube rant about his daughter. From the descriptions I read, I figured this guy got about 15 minutes more fame than he deserved. Today, however, an editorial writer in the local paper had this to say….
Oh my! “Read diary entries”? Anyone who reads someone else’s diary entry without permission deserves every ounce of hurt they get. Because people---especially young women---use their diaries as therapy, to express the anger that society does not give them leave to express in real life. Oh, and by the way, ever wonder why girls get eating disorders and cut themselves and attempt suicide? It is because they are not allowed to express their negative emotions in this fucked up “Boys can’t cry and girls can’t get mad” society we live in. And when you deny anyone the right to express their emotions, you are telling that (usually young) person, “You are not good enough the way you are.” Which leads to self hatred, self abuse and years of psychotherapy as an adult.
Speaking of money, I hope that the Ms. Jordan sends her dad a bill for her shrink when she has to spend a couple of years figuring out why it was ok for her dad to curse her on YouTube, but it was not ok for her to curse her dad on Facebook. And before you say “That’s different, he’s he grownup” I want to add this:
When a parent acts one way and expects his child to act another, that parent is trying to be the child and trying to force his kid to be the adult.
Yeah, yeah. Bitch and moan about how much you have sacrificed for the kids, about how hard you work, about the six hours you wasted and the loss of $130. Tell us that you are deserving of unconditional love from your child, because of all the things you have done for her. Get it off your chest. But for Christ’s sake, do it in private or in the company of like-minded adults. Because here is a little secret. Your (still minor) child does not owe you a damn thing. When you decided to become a parent, you made a contract with that baby to love it, care for it, support it financially as well as emotionally. You did not sign on for a cruise on the “I love you daddy” Boat. We owe our kids unconditional love. If we do not get the kids we thought we deserved, we make do with the ones we have. And we love them for all the things they are---the pissed as hell as well as the sugar and spice, the tears and wails as well as the puppy dogs tails.
I decided I had to see for myself why a grown woman was proudly telling the world that she sneaks and reads her kid’s diary. So, I checked out Tommy Jordan’s rant. Here are the highlights:
First, bonus points for waving a cigarette around as he tells his daughter how she ought to act. Yes, in real life he probably cusses out his girl while smoking. But what kind of parent does it on YouTube? Answer: a parent who is proud of his faults. A parent who is telling the world (in its face) this is how I am, love it or leave me alone. Which raises the question, what kind of kid writes a Facebook entry about how mad she is at her family? Answer: a kid who is trying to tell the world this is how I am, love it or leave me alone. Hmm. A chip off the old block. You’d think the father would be proud that his daughter is following in his footsteps.
Double bonus points for doing exactly what the daughter is accused of doing---telling the public how angry he is at his family’s failure to communicate. When a girl child does it, she is unnatural. When the “grown up” dad does it, he is cool. A cult figure. Gotta admire a man who is not afraid to act like a whiny brat in public!
Triple bonus points for telling us that he grounded his daughter for three months---no computer, no Facebook, no cell phone---for telling the world how mad she was. As a writer, I hate---no, despise censorship in any form. As a mother and a doctor, alarms go off in my head whenever someone brags about how they placed their steel toed boot squarely on their child’s negative emotions, nipping those dangerous things right in the bud.
Quadruple bonus points for starting off his rant with the assurance that he must love his daughter and supply all her needs, because he spent six hours on her computer yesterday and 130 bucks. At this point, I can already see the problem. Dad here does not think he owes his daughter six hours or $130. He thinks he made a deposit in the Bank of “I love you daddy”, and he expects a return on his investment. So, when the daughter does not pay up, he figures he needs to Occupy YouTube, in order to let the public know that he has been ripped off---
Good lord, man! You’re supposed to be happy if your daughter is healthy, reasonably well balanced and not sniffing glue. Good parents do not keep a ledger. Good parents expect only one thing of their children---that they treat other people with the same degree of love and respect that their parents have shown to them.
Ok, on to the “tough love.” I won’t recap the whole thing, just the highlights.
“Are you out of your mind?”
“You won’t get off your lazy ass to look for a job.”
“I blew half my day upgrading your laptop.”
“I don’t know how to say how disappointed I am with you…”
This one deserves special comment. Obviously this dad is not a fool. He knows that his family has serious communication problems. That is why his daughter is telling her Facebook friends about her problems rather than sitting down with the family to work them out. And guess what. If there is a communication problem, it is not the kid’s fault. Because she is not the parent, no matter how much her parent may wish that his daughter could be the perfect mother-surrogate that he thinks he deserves. Yes, he does think he deserves it. The rant about how bad he had it as a kid and how he had to leave home and work and put himself through college is supposed to prove to the world that he deserves a chance to be a child finally. But, in order for him to be the kid, his child has to be the parent. What kind of unnatural daughter objects to being told to drop what she is doing and get Dad some coffee? June Cleaver had orgasms when Ward asked her to do the same. She felt fulfilled when she could bake cookies with a big smile plastered across her carefully made up face. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that Tommy Jordan’s parents were not the Cleavers. And he still has not forgiven them for that sin.
OK, back to the video.
“You got it easy…” More self pity. We know you suffered, dude. You want to make someone pay, and your daughter is the easiest target. Man, you look like you are having some fun as you tell viewers to “Put a boot up their own kid’s ass”---right before you complain about her use of “curse words.”Note to everyone. If you cuss, your kids will cuss. Cussing is not a sin. It is natural language. If you want your child to develop the ability to express emotions with accurately---like saying “I feel that you have belittled me with that comment. I have value too” rather than snapping back with “Fuck you, ass hole”, you need to teach them those words.
The rest is history. “This right here is my 45.” And “These are exploding hollow point rounds. You have to pay me back for them…” And, most disturbing of all, (because I am a bit sexist, I admit it. Even when the dad insists upon playing the role of the child, I expect the mother to make an effort to be a parent) “Your mom said to put one in from her…”
Since no story is complete without the back story, here is my own back story. My dad was much too young to be a parent. He wanted my mother to be the perfect mother he never had. He did not want to share her with needy little kids. He came home drunk and waved a gun around and scared the kids(me) half to death and his wife, very sensibly, left him. Good for her. It was one of the best things she ever did for me (her child) and I am grateful as hell, even if he did continue to bitch and moan to his dying day about how much he loved and missed my mother. Another thing I am grateful for---when I was a kid crying in the backseat of the car and my father yelled back at me to shut up, my mother said “She has a right to cry. Leave her alone.” Now, that is good parenting.
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Member since: Tue Nov 9, 2004, 07:05 PMNumber of posts: 19,240
