BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

2009 may well be re­mem­bered for its scandal-ridden head­lines, from ad­mis­sions of ex­tra­mar­i­tal af­fairs by gov­er­nors and sen­a­tors, to cor­po­rate ex­ec­u­tives fly­ing pri­vate jets while cut­ting em­ploy­ee ben­e­fits, and most re­cent­ly, to a mys­te­ri­ous early morn­ing car crash in Flor­i­da. The past year has been marked by a se­ries of mor­al trans­gres­sions by pow­er­ful fig­ures in po­lit­i­cal, busi­ness and celebr­ity cir­cles. A new study ex­plores why pow­er­ful peo­ple – many of whom take a mor­al high ground – don’t prac­tice what they preach. Above, a ses­sion of U.S. Con­gress pre­pares to lis­ten to the pre­si­dent's State of the Union Speech in a 2003 White House photo. A new study ex­plores why pow­er­ful peo­ple – many of whom take a mor­al high ground – don’t prac­tice what they preach. Re­search­ers sought to de­ter­mine wheth­er pow­er in­spires hy­poc­ri­sy, the ten­den­cy to hold high stan­dards for oth­ers while per­form­ing mor­ally sus­pect...

by Gene Messick On 11 December I wrote an Article for OEN about this: Opportunities to deal with sociopaths in American politics. Since then, I've been collecting examples to prove my point. Just recently I discovered one of the most egregious examples to date, described in a recent Mother Jones blog by Jonathan Stine in which he wrote this: "Alberto Gonzales: Pathetic? Deluded? Crazy? Short fiction writer Alberto Gonzales is confused, asking in a recent interview, "What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?" If Gonzales is trying this unctuous nonsense in an attempt at image-rehabilitation, he needs to hire a professional PR company. If he's asking this question in earnest, he is demonstrably insane. As Think Progress points out, the answer to Gonzales' question includes: corrupting the DOJ by insiting on ideological purity tests in hiring; firing US Attorneys that refused to toe the Bu...

by Gene Messick Frequent arrest of Senators and Congressmen forces a question that has been far too long ignored: How do we deal with sociopaths in our government? Most Americans have a mistaken belief that sociopaths in America are a rare breed, that they are wild eyed, murderous lunatics who are regularly recognized, put away or executed. Most unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. What's a sociopath? Why do we not recognize them for what they are? How do we protect ourselves from them? Reading early FBI descriptions of the crime spree of Illinois Governor Blagojevich and other accomplices is like reading a 3rd rate piece of horror pulp fiction: surely, this did not actually happen! How could this go on and the many people involved NOT know that what they were doing was wrong? How could anyone believe that such cynical behavior as trying to sell a Senatorial Seat is acceptable in America today? To understand this fully, we must first understand what a sociopath i...

by Jane Marcellus Has anybody else noticed that most news stories about politicians' affairs aren't really about women? There are women in them, of course. There's the Wronged Wife , who is often portrayed as a victim in stories that frame her in a domestic light, focusing on how she is " coping " and whether " she'll stand by her man ," the Cheating Husband . And then, of course, there's the Other Woman , without whom there would be no story. We know her type: a bimbo, a jezebel, a . . . you know. We hear even less from her than from Wronged Wife , since we all know she is (sotto voce here) " unstable ." We might see her photo -- preferably a semi-nude shot taken in better days--shared with the press by a former boyfriend, now a happily-married tax attorney. The dichotomy that Helen Benedict described over a decade ago in " Virgin or Vamp: How the Press Covers Sex Crimes " is never more true than in stories about extramarital...

WE HAVE BECOME THEM Or reverted? (I'd probably fit right in with the elephants...) Political Animals ( Yes, Animals ) By NATALIE ANGIER As the candidates have shown us in the succulent telenovela that is the 2008 presidential race, there are many ways to parry for political power. You can go tough and steely in an orange hunter’s jacket, or touchy-feely with a Kleenex packet. You can ally yourself with an alpha male like Chuck Norris, befriend an alpha female like Oprah Winfrey or split the difference and campaign with your mother. You can seek the measured endorsement of the town elders or the restless energy of the young, showily handle strange infants or furtively slam your opponents. Just as there are myriad strategies open to the human political animal with White House ambitions, so there are a number of nonhuman animals that behave like textbook politicians. Researchers who study highly gregarious and relatively brainy species like rhesus monkeys, baboons, dolphins, sperm wha...

GET OUT YOUR BULLSH*T RADAR! With Annapolis coming, I feel this post from Kathy Krajco is very timely. Get your b.s. radar up everyone - there's already plenty of it flying around already. There's Condi "let's scr*w Israel" and Olmert "couldn't be more spineless if he was an earthworm" and then Abbas "I just don't get it..." And these are the people we are depending on to 'solve' the Middle East Crises? Spare me... (also for any victims/ survivors of Destructive Narcissistic abuse... keep reading. As a victim myself, I will say - what Kathy says here? is EXACTLY what retriggered my PTSD in 2004 and put me in a clinic for trauma for 2 weeks because of it. I did learn - DEFEND YOURSELF AND BE UNAFRAID TO TELL THE TRUTH) Self-Preservation Under Narcissistic Abuse by Kathy Krajco I don't see how it can be so difficult for many people to see what is so wrong about denying a person (or any sentient creature) the right to us...