SPECULATION VERSUS ASSUMPTION

We all speculate...at least those of us that think.  However, those who then go on to assume that their speculations are fact, cause trouble.  In a recent discussion with a friend, he was observing the behavior of a couple who had been married for several decades.  He was convinced the wife was angry at her husband for his too many activities.  "Based on what?", I asked.  He replied,'When my wife was alive she was angry because I spent too much time  on Boy Scouting activities.  I reminded her of the necessity  for our four sons'

The conversation bothered me because he was insisting he was correct.  My response that it might be true but he had no proof beyond his own guess didn't deter him from his conclusion.  He insisted that I could be as wrong in assuming the wife was not angry as he was in assuming she was.That annoyed me.  I was not assuming she wasn't angry..  Both did a great many things with each other as well as many independent activities..  My reply was,  "She has given me no indication that she is angry at him when we have talked."

As a psychotherapist I try never to make assumptions.  (You may all remember Benny Hill claiming we mustn't assume because,  when we do (as he wrote ass/u/me),' we make an ass out of you and me'.  I speculate mightily and work towards finding the truth so as not to waste therapy time.  People do not realize the potential damage done because of assumptions.  Our media pundits do it all the time.  Those who don't believe a person on trial who doesn't seem repentant (though they may not be guilty) , must in fact be guilty.  They do our justice system a great disservice.  They never stop to think that a clinically depressed person shows no facial reflection of emotions.

Beware! Do not 'ass/u/me'.  Assuming is gambling.  You may do it at the race track, or buying chance tickets, at your own risk.  Do not do it with other people's lives.

MUSICAL CHAIRS GAME IN THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDACY FOR PRESIDENT

There was rather a large number of candidates interested in obtaining the choice of Republicans to be their candidate for Presidency.  We have seen the similarity to the game as every time the music plays, when it stops there is one less candidate sitting in a Republican favored chair.  Mike Huckabee was the first casualty (or shall we say without a chair when the music stopped).

Each candidate seems to have shot themselves in the foot, somehow.  Trump quit because he refuses to shake hands, will not make his finances public, and got himself a TV contract which is a 'bird in the hand and worth two in the bush'.  Newt Gingrich seems lukewarm about the run as do his 'constituents,

Bachmann and Palin lose status with their lack of accurate history knowledge.  Currently they are busy setting up a cat fight between themselves though they might be the last to be aware that is what they are doing.  Lawrence O'Donnell believes Rick Santorum will drop our of the running right after Newt Gingrich , whom he sees as dropping out fairly soon.  Interestingly, Rush Limbaugh has decreed that Gingrich is through as a viable candidate.

Romney seems to be the most viable Republican candidate but, he also seems to lack the kind of support he needs from the Republicans party. to cover for all his waffling back and forth on issues of major import to us all.

Meanwhile, each day bring another chapter and cliff hanger as we wait to hear who will be tackling the competition with Obama.  I'm sure Obama's opponent will not miss a trick to continue with their falsified statistics and erroneous and misleading 'facts'.

I, for one, await with bated breath for more news on the subject...................................

TURNING BACK THE CLOCK ON RIGHT TO CHOOSE

There is a group in the USA, whom I have called the American Taliban, who wish to keep women subordinate.  One way to do this is to ban abortion, require women to give birth to the fetus who resulted from a rape, and do ban all contraceptives.  This seems a bit short sighted.  There will be more children born, unloved, and nothing will stop sex happening between males and females, married or not.

There are some champions in Congress though it has not reached the media.  While the attack on abortion is seen by many as an overreach, the Right Wing has not appreciated the value that abortion is to our society..

Planned Parenthood suggested that people count the number of protesters of the pill (it turned out there were 115) and make a pledge to Planned Parenthood who then received over seven thousand dollars which will go to buy contraceptive pills to be given to women who cannot afford to pay for them

It should make the media ashamed of their priorities.  That they make Anthony Weiner's sexual hangups  more newsworthy than the sneaky progress being made by the Right Wing to rid our society of abortion doctors, abortions, and contraception, all of which will force women to be barefoot and pregnant far too frequently.

In terms of our current economic system, the 'little woman' in any class below the pretty rich cannot afford to stay home and raise children.  Even if the family income is such to allow it, it may take women out of the work force who are contributing significantly to our society.  Are we really going to let ourselves be led by this fringe group who ignores our laws and constitution?  In those backward states tryhing to change these laws, where are the protest voices?

MSNBC HAS TURNED INTO AN AMATEUR PSYCHOLOGY STATION

For several days now, MSNBC has focused on Rep. Weiner.  However, it isn't just reporting what happened.  There have been several panels on several shows, trying to second guess what Weiner might have been thinking and how his wife should react.

There must be more important things going on in the world about which we are not getting much coverage.  The destruction on the Golan Heights by the Israelis might be something people in the US are interested in more than hearing all the intimate details of Weiner's intimacies on the Internet.

Ed Schultz, a man I have greatly admired for some of his tenaciousness on critical issues   seems to be off base again as he was when he was demanding that Obama should have gone to Wisconsin and marched with the people.  He totally missed that the Secret Service could not protect him if he did that and it is their job to disallow his doing anything for which they are unable to protect him.  That's their job!

Schultz is calling for Weiner to resign on the basis of his having told lies to cover up his embarrassing behaviors.  However, I will applaud Schultz for interviewing several people from Weiner's district who give him glorious reviews.  In myh opinion, I am concerned that MSNBC has become unfair and unbalanced 180 degrees from FOX NEWS

TEMPEST IN A LEGISLATIVE AND MEDIA TEAPOT: ANTHONY WEINER

The media ragged on Charlie Sheen for months before finally understanding the man was obviously manic.  Mental Health professionals from all over were seeing this man on video, letting their opinions and visual diagnostic assessment be known, but the media could not stop their titillating hay-making for the fools who ate it up in their ignorance

Chris Matthews was one of the worst in guessing, showing his ignorance, and continuing to interrupt his guests before he allowed them to answer his questions.

Anthony Weiner admitted to sending out some lewd pictures on the Internet.   In my opinion, Anthony Weiner would be a terrible loss to the House of Representatives and to our country if the service of rational logic he has provided is lost to us.  It would appear to me that the man is perfectly normal, with the exception one one recently outed flaw, the need to show his masculinity by 'flashing' on the internet where it might have seemed safer than in the flesh.  He is not the first to have a compulsion of that sort.  Psychiatry has dealt with this problem for years but, talk therapy is not as effective and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).  Since Weiner is in New York where there are still some 'respected' Freudian thinkers, I wonder if he has been in the wrong kind of therapy or, in fact, any therapy at all.

I can only support this man's decision to refuse to quit.  His obsessional behavior has nothing to do with his ability to do a better job as a Representative than many less mentally able and stable colleagues in the House.

AFGHAN OR AMERICAN TALIBAN, WHICH IS MORE CONTROLLING?

The Taliban in Afghanistan doesn't mince words with its threats. If Asma had not made a living giving lessons in Afghanistan, the Taliban would not have decided to teach her one of their own. Recently,  in a school in the southern part of Afghanistan, Asma received a letter one day which read:  "We warn you to leave your job as a teacher as soon as possible otherwise we will cut the heads off your children and we shall set fire to your daughter,"  Needless to say, the woman quit her job immediately.  The Taliban claimed another quiet victory in their silent war on Afghan women; a war, some warn, in which they could be on the cusp of a breakthrough.  To read more, click here.

We have known all along that the misogynists in the Taliban want their women to remain uneducated, their chattel, their sexual and child-bearing slaves.  What gives me difficulty is the similarity to our American 'Taliban'.  In 2004 the The Supreme Court also decided, however, that states have a right to regulate how abortions are performed and that states may ban abortions after the fetus is viable (able to live outside the womb) unless the mother's life or health is endangered.  Click here for more on this. Some Republican states have taken this idea and run with it to the point of trying to ban contraception, which some intelligent people night see as an over-reaction to protecting life when they don't allow routine health tests to be paid for as preventive required medical expense..  (These efforts will do away, not only with marriages, but heterosexual sex).  

The result will be good for merchants selling sex toys, dildos, and what many women already call their B.O.B. (battery operated boyfriend; you get no STDs, can't get pregnant, and use it only when in the mood).  These have become so popular, they are no longer received in unidentifiable catalogs by mail, but in popular catalogs which describe themselves as selling health aids.  The could well advertise as selling body part replacements, not mentioning that the replacement is of someone else's body part. 

What is it that makes these politicians who claim to want government less intrusive in our lives, take such an intrusive role in social and medical decisions?  Since the only rationale behind their stance is a religious one or a personal belief, what allows a group to make decisions for all people when it is not made 'for the good of all'?  This is rather controlling, is it not? 

controllingpresent participle of con·trol (Verb)

1. Determine the behavior or supervise the running of.

2. Maintain influence or authority over.

This behavior does not sound as fulfilling the essence of a democracy to me!

TORTURE NEED NOT BE VIOLENT

During my lifetime I have thought torture to be something applied to one's body.   Something the Catholic church did during the inquisition, for example.  I envisioned people being burned alive, joints separated on the rack.  It all seemed a barbaric and cruel infliction on fellow mankind that should be in the past.  I believed that it could only happen when uneducated people seeking power knew only to break people physically and mentally...

However, I was wrong.  Torture in our modern times is only indirectly caused to the body.  It is caused by those who wish poverty on the middle and poorer classes.  It is included in Paul Ryan's budget with his unconscionable cute to programs that cause the most harm to growing children, women's health, and opportunities for our country to educate more children towards productive futures for themselves and our total economy.

Further proof as to how wrong I had been, I thought the United States was above using torture.  The Bush administration proved me wrong though I was still focused on the notion that torture was a physical action.  While I understood emotional abuse I never associated it with the results of it.  As I think more on it, I realize that the Republicans, as I hear them, do not differentiate between their rhetoric, lies and attempt to raise the monied class while putting most  responsibility for the economy costs to our country on the backs of the middle and poor class, those least able to afford them.

By not asking the upper class  to pay their fair share, the Republicans are forcing a higher portion from their meager incomes to pay for the function of the government,  The result to too many families can clearly be defined as torture with the resulting inability of parents to provide education to their children, proper nutrition, medical care, and other life necessities. .