Margaret and Helen- You Can't Spell Compassion With A Calculator.

[Gregorian]

I lay awake last night thinking about what kind of a country would even entertain the possibility of a Paul Ryan or a Sarah Palin having the responsibility and power to start a nuclear war, let alone find their way to the bathroom. But when I found this gem, I decided to just let Helen say it for me. She sure does. And Margaret's reply!

http://margaretandhelen.com/2012/10/13/someone-needs-to-remind-paul-ryan-you-cant-spell-compassion-on-a-calculator/

Mr. Ryan. You seem like a nice guy. Given a little time your heart might actually catch up to your brain. Until then, kindly take your spreadsheets, your bottom line and your religious intolerance and shove them up your ass. I mean it. Really.

Four years ago, Palin debated Biden and painted the world in black and white – oil and snow. This time Ryan painted it in red and black - debits and credits. Everything gets all summed up in rows and columns where nothing matters but the bottom line. Life has yet to throw him any problem that can't be solved with a calculator.

What does it say about the Republican Party that despite our being the richest country on the planet, all they can worry about is how expensive it is to take care of our elderly, our sick and our less fortunate? What kind of statement are they making when they focus almost exclusively on how much richer we could all be if we just spend a little less money on the sick and the elderly?

[Tigress DEM]

1. OMG! Nearly did a spit take!!

"While I watched the debate, I often wished that Joe would stop smiling at Ryan and just reach across the table and slap the shit out of him. "


Choice bits:

"The federal budget that Ryan apparently keeps next to his bible has a revenue line of more than $2 trillion dollars. That would be a two followed by twelve zeros. Twelve."

"Ryan seemed not to understand the concept of a separation of church and state despite his infatuation with Iran – a country that clearly can’t separate the two."



GOOD SOLID FACTS:

There are more billionaires in America than in the next 10 richest countries combined....almost 5 million Americans have that distinction – more than the next 10 countries combined.

But the way Ryan describes it you would never know that the tax burden for American workers is one of the lowest on Earth… or that our defense budget is ten times greater than the next closest country.

TEN TIMES!!! (My add and edited 1st sentence down a tiny bit.)

[identify]

2. o awesomeness..

[RC]

3. My kind of Old biddies.

Telling it as it is and being old enough so that few dare to pick on them.

If they started posting on DU though, they'd be attacked for being trolls. They sure as hell would rub some clique the wrong way, right up front.

We need more people like Margaret and Hellen Helen.
Like Joe Biden, the stand up to the bullies.

[prairierose]

6. Trolls are attacking them on their website...

there are troll comments posted for almost every column. The repugnant party has decided that these old gals are a threat to them so they have to send in the trolls. And I can see how they are. Any one who tells the truth about the repugnant policies and what pass for ideas over there is a threat, along with critical thinking and education in general.

[Grammy23]

8. The grandson of one of the ladies helps them with their website---

So I am sure he can take care of any trolls that show up. I absolutely LOVE their blog posts and follow them. It is a real joy when I look in my inbox and have a notification of a new post by these two gutsy broads. They just tell it like it is and don't really give a rat's ass if someone doesn't like it. They are well informed and not about to be bamboozled by Ryan or Romney. I say bully for them for having the courage to just call these two jackasses out for who and what they are! I hope when I get to be their age I am as sharp and with it as these two grand dames!

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. I am reading a very interesting book

It's called "The Druggist of Auschwitz".

I have read lots of books about this subject, but this is the first book I have ever read that made me understand how the Holocaust could have happened. How could people do these kinds of things to other humans? The book uses actual testimony from the criminal trial of a pharmacist in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. From this testimony of camp prisoner workers, low-level SS officers and enlisted, and those on trial for war crimes, I have come to understand how the efforts to dehumanize the victims worked not just on the victims themselves, but on those that were guarding the prisoners.

The testimony mentions again and again, how the prisoners/victims were reduced to numbers to be counted on charts, graphs, and ledgers of many kinds. How many gold teeth, how many rings and watches, how many Transylvanians, how many Hungarians, how many trucks required. It just struck me that the meticulous records they kept were one of the ways they removed any sense of humanity toward the prisoners that may have been felt by those persons actually running the camps.

Reading this book while watching Romney and Ryan try to attain the presidency of the United States has got me really worried. I am vowing to not let my friends and family fall for the Republican effort to turn people into numbers.

[Gregorian]

5. I just finished an earth shattering book. The Drama Of The Gifted Child, by Alice Miller.

I don't say earth shattering as an exaggeration. I've had profound realizations since I finished it.

This is taking what you have written, and going another level below it. It's a book for therapists. Even though it was written in 1979 it is still shunned and not accepted. And that is because it revolves around child abuse. Even the phrase child abuse is misunderstood. Simply put, messed up parents raise messed up children. And almost all parents are abusing their children. I came from good parents, and yet this opened my eyes.

On the last page of the book she goes political on the reader. It's stunning. These people, like Bush, like Romney, like Stalin, Hitler, Saddam, all have repressed emotions that have caused them to play out this parent/child role in the world. They are looking for people to target. And the people who support them are also still playing along as their unconscious minds gravitate to those who are playing out this role.

I am not stating very well. It's a short book. And it's so trivial I couldn't believe it. But then suddenly I saw the world in a different way. Everything. All interactions.

It's a must read. And she has another titled The Body Never Lies. What happens when we have these repressed emotions is that we get sick. And much of the illnesses on the planet are due to this. It's really amazing stuff.

[Delmette]

7. thanks

I'll have to find both books, they sound very interesting.