Kind of a gross day with cloudy skies and humidity but no real rain. We’ve had such a dry summer, and it was predicted a while back that this region, normally very wet in the summers, would begin to experience regular drought conditions. This is a shame for multiple reasons, notwithstanding the very real blow to tourism as river rafting, fishing, and other activities slow down because it’s hardly very thrilling to white water raft in two inches of water and the fishing ain’t great, either.
It will bring other problems, including straining the deep well aquifers that we use in conjunction with purified water from the Ohio River for drinking water. The most serious issue, though, is after a couple years of drought, we will being to experience forest fires. This will be disastrous for a number of reasons, some obvious, some less so, but the first reason is that West Virginia is one of the most forested state in the nation behind only Maine and NH. Fully 80% of the state is forest, and that is a lot of fuel for fires. Add in the sparse population in much of it meaning there are no fire fighting resources, and the fact that there is precious little in the ways of highways or major waterways to serve as fire breaks.
Making matters worse, WV and Appalachia have the most biodiversity in the nation, and we could wipe a lot of that out, which is why I am wisely moving for six months every year to a desert state that has no fucking water at all god I fucking hate everything
This is fucking terrifying:
Amari Marsh had just finished her junior year at South Carolina State University in May 2023 when she received a text message from a law enforcement officer.
“Sorry it has taken this long for paperwork to come back,” the officer wrote. “But I finally have the final report, and wanted to see if you and your boyfriend could meet me Wednesday afternoon for a follow up?”
Marsh understood that the report was related to a pregnancy loss she’d experienced that March, she said. During her second trimester, Marsh said, she unexpectedly gave birth in the middle of the night while on a toilet in her off-campus apartment. She remembered screaming and panicking and said the bathroom was covered in blood.
“I couldn’t breathe,” said Marsh, now 23.
The next day, when Marsh woke up in the hospital, she said, a law enforcement officer asked her questions. Then, a few weeks later, she said, she received a call saying she could collect her daughter’s ashes.
At that point, she said, she didn’t know she was being criminally investigated. Yet three months after her loss, Marsh was charged with murder/homicide by child abuse, law enforcement records show. She spent 22 days at the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center, where she was initially held without bond, facing 20 years to life in prison.
This August, 13 months after she was released from jail to house arrest with an ankle monitor, Marsh was cleared by a grand jury. Her case will not proceed to trial.
I am so sick of these godbothering panty sniffers.
This is idiotic but completely unsurprising:
X will now make your posts visible to users you’ve blocked. In a reply on Monday, X owner Elon Musk said the “block function will block that account from engaging with, but not block seeing, public post.”
Currently, X displays a “You’re blocked” message when trying to view the profile of a person who’s blocked you. In addition to blocking all posts, it also prevents you from seeing their replies, media, followers, and following list.
While a source at X told The Verge that the platform is making this change because people can already view posts from users who’ve blocked them when using another account or when logged out, several of us at The Verge (myself included) have noticed that X actually prevents you from viewing someone’s profile if you’re logged out.
Let all the nazis and awful people back on the platform, then make it so you can not block them. Makes abusing exes and intimidating others so much easier. I’m now cross-posting everything on bluesky (@johngcole.bsky.social) and see me migrating completely in the future. Get a fucking desktop app, bluesky. BTW- am I just stupid because I’ve never figured out how to monetize anything on FB or Twitter and yet I read about all these people making bank on social media. Maybe it’s because my ass is too big.
I got up super early to get some work done, then made a 100 mile drive down the Ohio River to Little Hocking, Ohio, to pick up a couple hundred Harris/Walz signs for the county hq at a printer they had contracted. A pleasant drive, and I rode in silence the whole way to let my head clear. I have no idea if this means anything, but four and eight years ago that drive was just plastered with Trump signs and never a Clinton sign, and this time around it was about 2-1 Trump to Harris. I don’t know if that means fewer people are going to vote for Trump or that fewer people are willing to publicly admit voting for Trump (this is southeast Ohio so my guess is the latter, but am willing to be pleasantly surprised), but it was definitely an unqualified bonus to see the Harris/Walz signs. I don’t remember even seeing any Biden ones.
At any rate, I am tired, so you guys have at it. And for the record, we are trying to grow the site and get new commenters, so remember that you don’t need to be a total twat to anyone new, particularly those who do not agree with you 100% on every issue.
Anoniminous
What percentage of twatness is permitted?
(Asking for a friend.)
Erste!
Gary K
@Anoniminous: You could FAFO.
Ohio Mom
Driving around my red, suburban neighborhood, I am seeing more Harris/Walz yard signs but the yards with Trump signs are all out: not just Trump lawn signs but also Trump flags, signs for every Republican running (Senate, Congress, county offices), signs disparaging Democrats, flags disparaging Democrats.
I don’t know how you rake leaves around all that (the trees here have had enough of our drought and are letting go of their leaves early. We are going to have a very uncolorful fall).
Anyway, the Trumpers are loud. I hope that means they are feeling frantic.
Ohio Mom
If we are trying to grow the blog, maybe we should be inviting friends and family from our meat space lives to join us here.
Anoniminous
@Gary K:
That risks banning. And that risks ever knowing the finale, resolution, solution of the Mystery of Missing Mustard.
SpaceUnit
I’m amazed there are almost no yard signs whatsoever in my area. Typically they are everywhere.
SatanicPanic
It’s yucky weather here too. My knees hurt and I’m not liking it.
edit – OMG this is hilarious
I won’t spoil the punchline
Dagaetch
I’m confused. I don’t agree with myself 100% of the time, and I’m a total twat to me. So you want me to treat new people better than I treat myself?…oh, I see what you mean.
oldster
“to pick up a couple hundred Harris/Walz signs for the county hq at a printer they had contracted. ”
Thanks, John. You’re doing the work, and it will make a difference on Election Day.
HumboldtBlue
Well, hell, what’s the fun in that?
HumboldtBlue
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
I hope that means they are feeling frantic.
I’d bet a rather small amount that they are either there or getting there. SFB has his old fartitus jet backpack on afterburner, trying to fly to the front of the class to make things better for him, but his disgusting, disastrous, dumbass self makes redemption for all his bullshit completely, totally and thankfully impossible. IOW the harder he tries and having only the ridiculous, hard core asswipes left to support him, really does not give him a lot to go on. If he keeps aging out at an ever faster rate he might just explode and leave us even faster.
JMG
My Cape Cod town casts about 6500 votes in Presidential elections. In 2012, Obama beat Romney by eight votes. In 2020, Biden won 2-1. I think it’ll be 3-1 this time around, judging from the opinions of my old white guy goif companions. But the Trump supporters have enough signs, big ones, so they look like some kind of weird Halloween decoration. Harris-Walz signs are normal sized, and more numerous. As late as 2000, the Cape was Republican territory. Now it’s as Democratic as almost all of the rest of Massachusetts.
KRK
I don’t understand what you mean by “Get a fucking desktop app, bluesky.” Easily 90% of my time on Bluesky is on my desktop and it seems quite user-friendly to someone who was never on Twitter. What am I missing?
CaseyL
I didn’t know you were on BlueSky! Happy to follow you there :)
After living much of my younger decades according to the “49% Angel/51% Bitch: Don’t Press Your Luck” motto, over the past 15-odd years I’ve mellowed considerably.
Oh, I will still regard some people as wastes of time, but I’ll never say so out loud and will always be polite. Sometimes excruciatingly polite.
I would love to see new people hang out here – and I will treat them kindly and gently.
SatanicPanic
@HumboldtBlue: my favorite Trump story ever is the sale of Trump Casino. It’s mid nineties I think and his Atlantic City casinos are all failing. He sets up a publicly traded real estate investment company saying it’s gonna buy the best assets. Then he sells shares. Dummies buy them of course. So he takes the money people pay invested with his new publicly traded company and… buys his own fucking casino. Thereby taking the debt off his private company’s books.
The best part? On top of his salary he paid himself $990,000 in finders fees for the casino he bought from himself.
I call it The Aristocrats.
satby
I just got home from Memphis, which without any extra adventures is a 1200 mile round trip. Ok, 597.1 miles each way. It’s an easy drive without torrential downpours and locking your only key plus everything else including your phone in the car.
And Budget now uses AI almost exclusively for all CS calls, like emergency roadside assistance. And charged me $135 for the aggravation of trying to get them to send someone. They should just lowjack all the rentals so they could unlock them remotely.
Anyway, I’m exhausted and going to bed too.
SpaceUnit
Personally I don’t want to grow the blog. We’re overcrowded as it is.
And some of the filthy new commenters are eating the dogs!
SpaceUnit
Next thing you know they’ll be posting comments in Spanish.
Chet Murthy
@SatanicPanic: Wasn’t that the company where he somehow arranged it so that when it failed, -he- got the tax loss write-off, and the company just got the loss itself? IIRC it was like $900m in tax losses he wrote off, so for the next decade he paid no taxes at all.
piratedan
@CaseyL: same, I added him as a follow.
hueyplong
@SatanicPanic: That’s our Mark– from wannabe slaveholder to victim of a “high tech lynching,” denied and disowned by the Trump campaign 3 times before the cock crowed.
Chief Oshkosh
I’m ten days into creating Total Twats for Kamala and you tell us this NOW?! Shit, Cole, we’ve already contracted for the embroidered napkins!
Another Scott
@satby: :-( No good deed goes unpunished, far too often.
Rest easy.
Cheers,
Scott.
Booger
And to add, when those forest fires start, there is no water available to quench them, because of the drought.
piratedan
@Booger: if the extended forecast is to be believed, Helene is expected to cross the Alabama/Mississippi coast and travel due north
Math Guy
@SpaceUnit: Y por que no?
SpaceUnit
@Math Guy:
Make Ballon Juice Great Again!
MisterForkbeard
@SpaceUnit: So long as the cats are okay
MisterForkbeard
@SpaceUnit: Los gringos estan comiendo los gatos y los perros!
Did I do that right? My high school spanish sucks.
narya
10 postcards for Sherrod tonight.
SpaceUnit
@MisterForkbeard:
It’s better than mine. I could once read and write Spanish pretty well. Never got good at conversation.
Jeffro
I see that trumpov has weighed in on the Nebraska EC vote allocation non-changes with his usual brand of lies, thinly-veiled intimidation, and hopes that someone…ANYONE…will give in to his corruption and give him what he wants:
trumpov:
The guy has ALWAYS been about simplifying voting systems and saving money, America! Don’t you get that? Also, he LOVES OMAHA, totally and fer sure!
Love how he makes sure to put McDonnell’s name out there for his mouth-breathers, too.
Go sell some more coins you waste of cells
citizen dave
One of my favorite orange man stories is likely from Keith Richards’ autobiography. Anyway, the Stones were contracted to play the orange guy’s NJ casino, but the Stones were aware that orange man always, always had to, loved to, show up at who-ever’s press conference to promote himself. The Stones put it in the contract that orange man could not, would not, be at their press conference. Under any condition. Or contract/show would not happen.
NotMax
FYI.
DJT stock collapses a further 10+ percent, closing today at $12.15.
hueyplong
@Jeffro: The “standing in the way of … victory” line seems a bit of a tell.
Jeffro
@MisterForkbeard: pretty good but you said that the white folks/yankees are eating the cats and dogs… ;)
I cheated w/ Google Translate and “Haitians” are “Haitianos” BUT in fairness, that was also one of my guesses before I used GT
(my other guess, pre-GT, was “Caribbeanos”, which doesn’t appear to be an actual Spanish word, LOL…it’s “Caribe”)
Jeffro
@hueyplong: always looking for another excuse for failure, our donald
Jeffro
@hueyplong: “It’s not like I was going to win votes with…what do you call them…policy positions? Apparently some people in SOME areas are unmoved my the majesty of my brain and its amazing ideas. So you have to essentially figure out how to change the rules so that those votes don’t count? Right? Which just shows how smart I am…”
It’s drunk grandpas at the bar, all the way down…
eclare
@Another Scott:
Satby’s good deed was bringing William the orange kitty to me. He is so sweet and a treasure. It was also great to meet satby in person. She is delivering all of those kitties from her rescue blog a few weeks ago.
I am insisting on paying her lost key charge, I am just thankful she is not standing on the side of the road asking for help from anyone.
But I am sure she could use gas money for the rest.
Sally
@HumboldtBlue: I hope Dr Biden will preface her next appearance by assuring attendees that she is not being paid to speak for Harris or the Democrats
(P.S. I know she won’t – but I would)
Maybe all the D speakers should declare that they aren’t paid spruikers.
eclare
@citizen dave:
I love the Stones even more now.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
@NotMax:
drop 10% here, drop 10% there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money
Nicholas Gibbs
Big asses in rainbow overalls have a niche. You just need better marketing.
thruppence
Just got my Harris/Walz stickers in the mail. Let’s see if I can get them on my car and not get vandalized for six weeks. Less noticeable rabid Trumpism this go round, but it only takes one angry jerk…
NotMax
Scuttlebutt is that the RNC has ceased all ads in North Carolina.
Sister Golden Bear
West Virginia will be fine John, you just need to rake the forests and turn on the ginormous faucet that has all the water you need. Or so I’ve been told.
Kelly
Here in deep red rural Oregon there’s probably as many places with Trump flag and such. But each place that has any Trump regalia has lots more than 2016, 2020.
satby
@eclare: nope, you’ve been too kind already.
The lock button on the rental was opposite of the one on my own car. I did it all my own self when I stopped for lunch and gas. It took about 15 minutes for them to find a very nice locksmith.
And I think I’m starting a new business. Only need one of those inflatable bladder things and a hook.
NotMax
High time to replace the paddles in the super duper bread machine with a new set. Fingers and everything else crossible crossed I didn’t screw anything up.
persistentillusion
@Jeffro: Now, it’s personal. I grew up in Omaha. I know where Warren Buffet lives. The Mango Menace can kiss my Aksarben ass!
eclare
@satby:
I am so glad it was fixed so quickly.
SiubhanDuinne
Per Rachel just a few minutes ago, Bernie Moreno (the Ohio R candidate for Senate challenging Sherrod Brown) has said publicly that women over 50 have no reason to care about reproductive rights. Can’t wait to see what Kay and Ohio Mom have to say about this.
eclare
@NotMax:
How on earth do they wear out?
Geminid
@NotMax: If the Trump campaign gives up on North Carolina it seems like they have to go all in on Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Although, people on Republican Twitter say that New York is within reach! They’re talking about a landslide.
Sister Golden Bear
@citizen dave:
@eclare: It gets better. Despite the contract, Trump still showed up at the concert venue. After their tour producer struggled to get Trump to leave, Richards offered to take matters into his own hands. Keith Richards made his unhappiness with Donald Trump clear by pulling out a knife
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Georgia governor Brian Kemp (R, of course) has withdrawn his support for Robinson.
NotMax
@eclare
The hole in the center of them which sits on a post is not completely round, nor is the post. Dough is a dense enough medium that the small flat edge on the inside of them gets worn down over time, allowing the post but not the paddle to turn as it should.
eclare
@Sister Golden Bear:
Wow!
Another Scott
@Geminid: I think Donold should go all-in on DC – I’m hearing rumors that DJT has untapped support there. I know a guy who could fix them up. Since it’s my idea, I will demand my usual 50% finder’s fee.
Hey, you can’t win unless you try, right Donold??
Cheers,
Scott.
hueyplong
@NotMax: I think it’s just the Republican Governors’ outfit that is not buying additional airtime. Trump and Vance continue to appear and that wouldn’t make sense if they weren’t going to be running their own ads.
eclare
@SiubhanDuinne:
So has our (TN) governor, Lee.
dww44
@Ohio Mom: A few hours ago we returned from an overnite visit in the Northern Atlanta suburbs and saw many Trump signs on the road trip but not in the suburbs themselves. However we were gobsmacked to enter our dead end cul-de-sac street to discover that long time neighbors had put a Trump 2024 sign in their front yard. No one has ever done that before .. as why would you on a street with 13 houses and no thru traffic? These neighbors, likely lifelong Republican voters but never overtly political, putting a Trump sign on their front lawn signals something and I do so hope it’s panic.
NotMax
@hueyplong
I sit corrected. It’s the Republican Governors Association, not the RNC proper.
NotMax
@dww44
Halloween egging target?
//
RevRick
@JMG: I can remember when New England was the rock-ribbed, beating heart of the Republican Party. The GOP’s embrace of Dixie meant its rejection of New England, and New England has responded in kind.
Gloria DryGarden
@MisterForkbeard: está completamente correcto. Muy bien.
o, sea, perfecto!
dww44
@NotMax: Good idea, but there are never any trick or treaters in the neighborhood as it’s kinda tucked away out of sight and all our kids are grown and moved away. I’m curious why they did that now… after more than 40 years.
Eunicecycle
@SiubhanDuinne: Connie Shultz, who is Sherrod Brown’s wife, already has it on her Facebook page and women are responding. I am also over 50 (way over) but as most of the women are saying, we have daughters, granddaughters, nieces and sisters. As a matter of fact, women without children are incensed, too, as they have empathy. I don’t understand how these men can be so tone deaf!
Ohio Mom
@Kelly: It makes sense that those houses have more and more Trump regalia, they’ve been collecting it. Like people who have accumulated so many Christmas ornaments over the years that they can’t fit them all on the tree.
WaterGirl
If anyone wants to make Cole happy, go buy a BJ car magnet on Cafe Press. He is like a kid before Christmas – every day, asking how many magnets have sold.
From my Sunday post:
Jo Jo las Orejas
@SpaceUnit:
¿qué?
Gretchen
I went to the Johnson County, Kansas (suburban Kansas City) Democratic office today. There was a steady stream of people picking up their Harris/Walz signs, Sharice Davids for Congress, and local office signs. Several enthusiastic volunteers didn’t have time to sit down
This district went for Clinton and Biden, so the lean isn’t surprising, but the enthusiasm was encouraging.
MisterForkbeard
@Jeffro: Oh, that was the intention. So long as we’re badly speaking Spanish and lying, we should go after the idiots causing the current set of problems
Gloria DryGarden
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh My Goddess!
Women over 50, we still have a few years to go, a lot of us. I’ve heard some pretty rough stories about late in life pregnancies. And as things slow down, it’s irregular, so it’s harder to predict and there’s such a chance of getting “caught” by a surprise.
besides, at a guess, most us care, I care, because a. All women matter and are a sort of kin. And b. All my friends daughters sisters cousins nieces coworkers.
Does he assume “ if it’s not about me it doesn’t matter”?
is that a parallel or corollary to “ I’m fine getting abortions for my daughter, my wife and my mistress, but nobody else should have access”
There aren’t words for the quantity of outrage.
Kelly
@Ohio Mom: Some of these places have had tattered trump regalia up since 2015. The tattered stuff is gone all the current displays are shiny new stuff. Reminds me of competitive Christmas light displays.
Jackie
@NotMax: Annnd Gov Kemp (GA) and Gov Lee (TN) revoked their endorsements for Robinson! 😂
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: I bought some yesterday. Can’t wait, I really wanted car magnets instead of stickers and these delivered.
Though, a rectangular car magnet would not go amiss
Ohio Mom
@SiubhanDuinne: Bernie Moreno (whose commercials, at least the ones I see on line, refer to him as Bernie in what I take as valor stolen from Vermont’s Senator) is a miserable crook.
Somehow, the news of his various escapades, including getting sued by his employees for not paying them the overtime they earned, and then destroying the evidence of this theft, is getting drowned out by the attacks on Springfield’s immigrants.
We in Ohio voted overwhelming last year for abortion rights so it’s a slap in the face to have him promise to ignore what we so clearly expressed.
Gloria DryGarden
@Gloria DryGarden: ETA also, the terrible situations like in johns post, that a woman has a miscarriage or a still birth, and does prison time for it.
horrifying
im over 50 and I won’t therefore care about my fellow humans?
That man is also that men don’t care about reproductive rights, but most do, our male partners do.
jeepers.
gwangung
@WaterGirl: Well, if it makes Cole happy…
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@eclare: Thks! So glad to hear it worked out
eclare
@dww44:
That is, dare I say it?, weird.
eclare
@Eunicecycle:
I am an only child with no kids, and I am still infuriated. I wish people would include us. It’s hard enough without politicians ignoring those who don’t have relatives.
Gloria DryGarden
@MisterForkbeard: verdad que nadia come los gatos ni los perros aca.
on another note, my neighbor told me “ amarren sus pollas porque nuestros pollos andan sueltos” was the main operational mode for her. Translation: keep your hens locked up in the coop, because the roosters run free.
Thus I coined the phrase “free ranging sperm” for all the careless situations that go on..
Gloria DryGarden
@Eunicecycle: yes
exactly.
Gloria DryGarden
@eclare: me too. I agree.
Gloria DryGarden
John Cole, thanks for suggesting people not be twats. I’m new here, since May. The time I was recently “twatted” here, it was very unpleasant for me. I wasn’t spoken to directly about what was objectionable, a few people just jumped to an opinion and discussed their label for me.
It has given me pause.
I’m pretty clear that my experience might not matter, I’m not fully a member of the club. The new policy came up just a day or two after. Oh well.
It’s been real, it’s been informative, and sometimes fun, so, I’m grateful. And, I’m still in negotiations with myself about it.
people are joking, but it can matter if you are an asshole to someone.
even if my comment is in the telomere end of a dead thread.
Bokonon
@Eunicecycle:
Just imagine these guys chortling like Rush Limbaugh and waving a cigar when they say these things, and then it all makes sense. They have all taken Limbaugh’s ideology that if you are not being selfish and self-interested, then you are being naive.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: You may lack the requisite cynicism.to become full member of this club, but please don’t let that stop you from commenting.
And if you were picked on unfairly the other night– and I thought you were– I hope you don’t take it to heart. You’re not mean, and that’s my basic test even though I haven’t always passed it myself.
karen marie
@satby: This is why I pay for AAA.
karen marie
@NotMax: Please, no. They already imagine themselves as victims because they’re white Christian Republicans. Don’t feed whatever residual need for actual validation they might have.
karen marie
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, fuck Bernie Moreno with a sharp implement.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: I’m really touched, and it does help. I think it was unfairly done also, and I appreciate you saying so.
Sadly it did hit pretty hard; I grew up in a house where things happened. So it’s a chance to rip the lid off buried stuff and feel it for awhile. Probably a useful growth opportunity. Nobody likes to get their character misread, and then get bashed for it.
(I’m sorry, James Thurber, for my extra commas)
I work hard to manage my mean streak, and to save it for careful, judicious, constructive use. What good would it do to tell a few people to go fuck a duck? Or to wish them bindweed and wasps and house mice? The ducks would not be pleased. And the karma department does not like me to interfere in their work. But I’m real close, it’s tempting. ( being mean sometimes only makes things worse, and I’ve had to learn that the hard way. )
thank you for your kind words. It’s a soothing balm in a time of need.
columbusqueen
@SiubhanDuinne: What an asshole. May go to a Moreno event just to flip him off.
sherparick1
A thanks to John for doing the driving and picking up Harris/Walz signes. Voting here has started in Virginia so please get vote as soon as you can. Ditto in other states where voting has started.
the pollyanna from hell
@Gloria DryGarden: My name is Randy Chase. I often bring up my real name when there is some fragment of music or poetry I have created. This time I want to expose my shameful history of sock-puppetry.
Forty or fifty years ago I took a survey of career preference. The shocking result was that I failed the Veracity Score. I enjoyed too many things, or I hated the wrong things.
My preferece was moot, since I was too slow to keep up with the rat race in any field. Hard to believe? Just more sock-puppetry. Maybe a dozen times in my life I failed the Veracity Score and descended into sock-puppetry. Just ask my ex-wife.
When I met Gloria twenty or twenty-five years ago I was prepared to be suspicious, because I knew I didn’t deserve to meet someone with fewer character flaws than myself. She invited me on a camping trip to the homeland of her spirit. My suspicion was confirmed. What kind of con-artist uses metaphors like “Spirit” and “Homeland?”
I had never heard of the Needles, just out past Moab. We went back year after year. When I watched that long continuous opening shot of Koyaanisqatsi I felt a strong rush of homecoming, so I guess the place was at least the part-time home of my spirit.
Gloria never objected when I began to carry her water on the hiking trails. Years later the day came when four hours only took us two miles up the trail, and four more hours brought us back down to the car. That was our last hike together.
People like Gloria and me are extravagantly unique. This gives a sense of unreality which has nothing to do with any intention to deceive. Gloria is like the student psychiatrist who fails the Veracity Score over and over. Imagine someone who deals with childhood trauma by dispelling for the sake of survival every trace of self-deception. In that case the useful purpose of self-deception to reconstruct the illusion of normality is no longer available. We use the illusion of normality to reassure ourselves and each other that sanity is in charge.
Another version of this analysis notes that self-training in how to project normality can trigger a return of the old PTSD.
I would like to see a clinical description of sock-puppet which can distinguish it from a six year-old girl who is astonishingly five feet tall and infected with mono. I hope those who think such cases are too rare to be important take some thought to the matter of karma. But I wouldn’t know much about that, being just an old something you found in your sock drawer.
Gloria and I are separated by half the country. We talk every day. She is exactly as clumsy and naive and helpful and brilliant as she purports to be.
BritinChicago
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s a sign that they don’t think anyone has any reason to do anything that is not in their own interests (and usually a narrow and short-term view of what constitutes a person’s interests). I’m in favor of spending money to improve the education of children in this country, although I have no children of my own (and never will), and am likely to be dead by the time today’s kindergartners reach 30. That’s because I think it would benefit those children and benefit the country as a whole, in the relatively long run. Anyone to whom that thought is puzzling doesn’t really understand what it is to be a citizen, and to care about a country.