Baker points to another right-wing hack, Joan Swirsky of The New Media Journal, a self-described "conservative leaning" website that publishes what "pundits" have to say (their word, not mine, I swear!). Swirsky last wrote about the pathology of liberals, which is in and of itself funny, but interestingly attempts to tie mental illness to liberalism. Apparently, Swisky and Baker have not researched this topic even superficially, as they'd quickly find the link between mental illness and conservative thought:
The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election... [The study] found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But its not just Bush, per se: its the ideology as evidenced:
A 1977 study... found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.
Not satisfied to draw a simple line from point "A" to "B", I dug deeper. I was startled to find that the United States is the craziest country on the planet! Not just by a little bit, but heaping doses of crazy! The closest competitor for crazy is the Ukraine, a full 5 points behind us! Who-hoo (as Homer Simpson would say). David Podvin points to the clear link between mental illness and conservatism:
Rather than educating himself on major issues of life and death by studying, George W. Bush faithfully listens to the voices in his head that have been keenly honed during a lifetime of not studying. Bush takes this approach based on his deeply held belief that only by remaining abjectly ignorant of all relevant facts can he possibly make a fully informed decision. His commitment to prioritizing fantasy over reality is strong and unyielding.
...
The W.H.O. awarded America numerous insanity bonus points for the insistence by our Holy Rollers that the bible must be interpreted literally. The English word “gay” doesn’t mean what it meant just a few decades ago, yet American zealots insist that the meaning of words translated from six thousand year old Hebrew can be defined with precision and should be used to justify persecuting human beings.
...
Projection is a component of mental illness that consists of attributing one’s own deficiencies to others.
Podvin uses the example of Rush Limbaugh to illustrate this point, but his article was written some time ago, at least before Rush appeared in a "comedy" skit on Fox Noise set in January, 2009, wherein he was elected president and his opponent, Howard Dean, was finally getting the "help he needed"... which is just ripe. A drug-addled, impotent tub of lard saying anyone else needs help...
But back to Baker's posting. Talk about projection of one's deficiencies to others! Through the use of Swisky's premise, Baker imagines what various well-known liberals would say to a cancer victim (funny, that was the premise behind another skit on the painfully bad Fox show; maybe this is a conservative thing, making fun of cancer patients?), and gosh, it sure is funny! While I could similarly entertain what some prominent conservatives would say, I find it childish to engage in that type of tit-for-tat.
Baker's problem, however, is that he fails to see the breakdown in logic that Sworski's article proposes: that the troops will be demoralized by the House resolution supporting them, but not Bush's tactical surge, but then goes on to say that you couldn't demoralize the troops even if you tried, they're such fierce warriors. Well, which is it?
Here's the crux of the matter, however. Conservatives don't support the troops, either. For instance, what about care for the wounded veterans? Dana Priest exposes the care at Walter Reed:
On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.
Disengaged clerks, unqualified platoon sergeants and overworked case managers fumble with simple needs: feeding soldiers' families who are close to poverty, replacing a uniform ripped off by medics in the desert sand or helping a brain-damaged soldier remember his next appointment.
"We've done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it," said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months. "We don't know what to do. The people who are supposed to know don't have the answers. It's a nonstop process of stalling."
...
Evis Morales's severely wounded son was transferred to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda for surgery shortly after she arrived at Walter Reed. She had checked into her government-paid room on post, but she slept in the lobby of the Bethesda hospital for two weeks because no one told her there is a free shuttle between the two facilities. "They just let me off the bus and said 'Bye-bye,' " recalled Morales, a Puerto Rico resident.
Morales found help after she ran out of money, when she called a hotline number and a Spanish-speaking operator happened to answer.
"If they can have Spanish-speaking recruits to convince my son to go into the Army, why can't they have Spanish-speaking translators when he's injured?"
Because, Evis, how that your son has done his part for the USA, he can rot. Kanye West wasn't right when he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people." What he should have said was "conservatives don't care about anyone but themselves."
Case in point and on target to this example:
House Republican leadership had removed [GOP] Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey as chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. The extraordinary purge buttressed the growing impression of arrogance as Republicans enter their second decade of power in the House.
The party's House leaders purportedly removed Smith, a tireless promoter of spending for veterans, to save money....
The leadership's problem with Smith has been his insatiable desire to make life better for veterans during 24 years on the Veterans Affairs committee (six years as vice chairman, four years as chairman).
No, that's not some quote from any liberal or even friend of left-leaning causes... it's none other than Robert Novak! If that's what a friend says about you, you know you've got problems.
Supporting the troops means more than putting a yellow ribbon bumper sticker on your SUV. It's more than finally providing armor and equipment to the troops. Its about not frivolously tossing American blood and treasure at some neocon idealogue's dreams of world dominance.
No George Bush and the conservatives got us into this mess. But here's my startling request: please, continue. You're guaranteeing Hillary in the White House in '08.
Maybe somebody then will mock up an old recruitment poster, saying "Conservatives! I Want You to Move to Mexico!" You see, I doubt Canada would take you.
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