BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

My blogger sista Layla, wrote such a good post in July 2007 about a subject which I have discussed with many bloggers during the last 7 years which I have been fiddling around with blogs. Blogging was a great way to keep my mind active, now that I am unable and diagnosed unfit to work. I am teaching myself CSS and other coding little by little. Old horses do learn new tricks! When I started blogging I refused to talk politics.  According to my therapists I still lack a lot of self-esteem. Over the years I was told by far too many people I was stupid, ugly, worthless, too intense, had a big mouth and ended up saying 'yes' to things any rational person would have said "NO WAY" too.   Undiagnosed PTSD had me doing irrational things that no one would accept an apology for.  I went out of my way to make people happy, to my own detriment. So my blog was a mishmash of this and that. Stuff I had written on a good day and so on. I helped out 2 websites for a ...

by David Warren In Toronto, on Thursday, I witnessed a little incident of some value to the interpretation of world affairs. It happened on a crowded westbound King Street trolley, trapped at Yonge Street by the early rush hour crowds. (Ottawans may envy any kind of functioning transit service.) Three young men, whom one might characterize as voluntary members of the underclass from the way they were dressed (expensive ghetto gear), jumped the back door of the trolley, in order to avoid paying fares. It is the sort of thing people just get used to in a decaying society. The drivers have their hands full processing paying customers through the front entrance, and can hardly be expected to guard the rear. But in this case, the driver more than noticed what was happening, apparently through his rear-view mirror. He shut the front doors, stalled the car, and elbowed his way through the standing passengers to confront his unpaid guests. "I've got bad news for you punks," he de...

Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamofascists, The Religious Right, The Obama Administration or that person who harasses or harangues you offline or on. Bullies follow a pattern. A pattern that is a form of a personality disorder, of which the worst form is sociopathy. Sociopaths have no guilt, no shame, no empathy, nothing. They will stick by their closest friends and family (they have to because they need sycophants to bail them out all the time) and have no compassion for those they hurt. They only play-act as if they have human emotions (learned by watching others) because they can't feel. They don't have an anger problem - their problem is with YOUR anger. Heaven forbid you should be hurt or angry. If a sociopath raped someone, he'd be mad that she sought medical and legal attention. If a sociopath stole something, she'd be angry you called the police or even had the temerity to ask for your things back. If a sociopath hit you with their car, they'd be angry you rep...

BLOG BULLIES & BLOG SNOBS - PART II Two months ago I blogged about the universal blogger experience of Blog Bullies & Blog Snobs. True to the phenomena - it has cycled around again. Last week I was treated to a slew of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist messages on this blog. I simply deleted them. I don't do HATE. I can deal with debate and disagreement but I won't promote hate. This is my blog so I can do what I like on it. Of course, we have those who can't take that. So they hack your blog. Mine was hacked this past May. Then there's the people my buddy Keli Ata wrote about - those who go to aggregators where you may be and rate your posts 0 or 1 (out of a possible 5). My rule is - if you can't give a 5 or 4 or say something nice... move on - it's a big blogosphere. ( Keli Ata, btw - has a great post about helping persecuted Journalist Bloggers that everyone should see ) I simply don't have the ego involvement with blogging some do. I blog becau...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Tonight went well. The kids raced through my lovingly made dinner to get to their costumes and start trick or treating. I feel they are still too young to go alone so I accompanied them. It's hard for me because in the small rural town I grew up in, I was the town pariah. I remember going out one Halloween and coming home with huge bruises and goose eggs - one over my eye, one on the back of my head and my costume covered with eggs. I was the town bully target at the time. I rarely left the house and spent a lot of time in my room, just like I do now. This morning, when I walked my kids to the school bus, overhead were 3 traffic copters. Probably reporting on the nearby Grand Central Parkway, LaGuardia Airport situation. One of the kids was fascinated, she said the copter noise made her feel safe. I am glad to know she doesn't remember 9/11 that well. I was hoping it didn't mean something bad had happened on the GCP or bode badly for the day. Along...

IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, BE SILENTLY COMPLICIT I have a personal philosophy about people. I have shared it with others, hoping they would argue with me and tell me I was incorrect. So far history, humanity and my friends have done neither. They all tell me I am right on. What is it? : You meet the 10 basic personality types you are ever going to meet by the time you graduate high school. You just keep meeting them over & over & over & over again. Sometimes they are older, a different sex, different race or religion... but at their core - its those same 10 idiots. Ad infinitum. There are those on both sides of the aisle who sweep ALL Republicans, ALL Democrats, ALL Liberals, etc into the same basket. Pundit-punching groups with a sweep of the keyboard. Intellectual midgets at work! When will the radical right wing give up with using the MSM to flip off the rest of us? Giving liberals the Bronx cheer with "the surge is working" mantra not far behind?...

AN APPEAL FOR TRUTH The Cry of a Wolf By Monica Benderman We can say with little doubt that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were part of a greater conspiracy to strike fear in the hearts and minds of the American public; enough fear to set off a reaction of anger and rage which was destined to initiate a war we had no business fighting. We can say with little doubt that it was a group of terrorists who established the organization which planned and executed an attack on our country leaving over 3,000 American civilians dead, thousands more seriously injured and divided this country in ways we could not see coming. We can say with little doubt that the acts of terror continue, both on our soil and against American citizens now wearing our nation’s uniform in countries half a world away. We can say with little doubt that the acts of terror were like a universal fuse for the grand finale of a massive fireworks display, setting off a reactionary anger which began with sparks over a tiny ...

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS CAN BE TOXIC Chaim over at Freedom's Cost had a great post that really got me thinking about political correctness. ( Chaim , by the way, is a superb writer and very knowledgeable - its a blog to read even from my side of the aisle!) One of my children has a serious problem being bullied. A very sensitive, good looking, tops in class, wins awards at school kid so, hmmm... wonder why? Be that as it may, it's very hurtful. I have been talking with them about it, giving them things to read and doing as much as I can to raise my kids' self esteem. It's hard when the other parent is overly critical, as he was when we were married. He wasn't the first person to do this to me. The abuser gets you defending yourself about things you didn't do, never said and have no clue about and thereby successfully diverts you from their behavior. As my child said, "what did I do to them to make them do this to me?" I don't know because I...