That we see violence, wars, shootings, domestic violence, racism and think to ourselves, that's not me, I'm good and I will never be like that. But we are violent, to each other every day and it saddens me. We do it to the ones we love the most, to our coworkers, to our friends, and even the people we disagree with. Our words, attitudes, gestures can and do inflict real harm and damage.

Won't you at least consider bashing rutabagas?

For about 30 seconds. At some point, ya just gotta move on, doncha know?

But I did get banned from a group once for saying I didn't like beets!!

long before that.

They would ban you in a second if you said you didn't like beets.

Tom Robbins would probably write you a nasty note personally!

It would be 5 pages long and such an elegant piece of writing you'd be completely unable to be offended by it.

I'd be happy just to meet Alobar and Kudra in a café somewhere........

And adrenalin. And it blocks the release of endorphins. Pregnant women are encouraged to stay away from cortisol raising environments because it literally effects the health of the fetus too.

Having the body on high alert for an attack while feeling abandoned by the safety net of kind others can do much damage.

As for partisanship--just find me a few extremist Republicans (not a hard thing to do in Texas--one of the reasons I don't mind being stationed 6000 miles from there!).

I'll show you some partisan!

I can't wait to let the hate and violence flow!

Not before.

the republicans are far worst, by orders of magnitude, than democrats... and I mean that at an academic level. They need to be called on it every day and twice on Sunday. But the entertainment of this site has to do with the vitriol between people who literally hate each other because one supports candidate A instead of B.

Sorry, if I get a chuckle out of that.

Sometimes I feel like I've been invited to a debate, and arrive instead at a cockfight.

There was an old cliché-ridden joke that made the rounds in Washington about 40 years ago.

As the story goes, way out in the desert in some forgotten corner of the Sainai, a Jewish farmer and an Arab farmer were neighbors and best of friends, and all the wars and conflicts had managed to pass them by. Then the next war arrives, and the orders come down to both of them: kill your neighbor and take his farm. Well, these guys have been friend for 60 years, and plan on doing no such thing. So, they're sitting on a porch sipping mint tea, and wondering how they can report back that they've done as ordered without actually doing so.

One of them suddenly says, "hey, how about this? We let our dogs fight, and say whoever had the dog that won, won!" They agree, that while they cherished their dogs, dogs were replaceable, and they could send back photos of a bloody scene that would get them left alone.

A corral is built, and the Arab arrives first with his four year old doberman, who he has "forgotten to feed" for the last three days. Then the Jewish farmer arrives with a sickly-looking animal whose hair has apparently completely fallen out and has short stumpy legs. The Arab looks on with a mixture of pity and sympathy.

The Arab says, "are you sure you want to let that poor thing fight my doberman? He looks old."

The Jewish mans says, "well, he IS old. But he's my only dog. So let him fight."

The Arab farmer sighs with resignation, and assents. The two animals are let into the small corral. They circle each other warily for about ten seconds, the doberman making all sorts of menacing growls. Then they have at it, and there is a blur of flying fur and spraying blood for about twenty seconds. What is left of the doberman is removed from the corral by his Arab owner who is stunned from dismay and disbelief. The Jewish farmer's animal is untouched and still crawling around on his stumpy legs licking the doberman's blood from his lips.

The Arab can't believe it. "You win. My poor doberman is a bloody mess. I can't believe this. What kind of dog is that, anyway?"

The Jewish farmer shrugs, and says, "what can I tell you? He's my nice little dog."

The Arab is no idiot and is having none of the evasion. "WHAT kind of dog is that?"

His neighbor shrugs again, and says, "well, before I had his nose fixed, he was an alligator."

indeed.

To comisserate about the repukian facist parasites .I leave during primary seasons but this time I'm staying in cyberdisinabtion hell to be marginalized , ignored and misunderstood like in real life .

Er, okay.

Let's elect her and then be shocked, shocked I tell you when we get the sequel to NAFTA, welfare reform, tax cuts for the rich, and the repeal of Glass-Steagal. Who could possibly have predicted that?

As for negativity? Well, that is politics. It's easier to know what you are against than what you are for. You can see that in DU. From 2001 to 2008, we were all on the same side - against Bush. Well, except in 2007. After that a bunch of us were against Pelosi.

But without that unity in opposition, we split and fought (actually we fought before 2006 too, but in other ways we remained united) The primary wars were far more divisive than any other issues.

But a whole bunch of us have always been united as well - in a negative way. That is, we are against Corporate Democrats, DINOs, Blue Dogs, and DLCers. Often that means we are against our own party. In fact, some are so much against it, that they are not even part of it. Still they would perhaps like to be if we could get a candidate more like FDR and less like WJC.

Thanks, I guess, for reinforcing the point, anyway.

"Corporatist" is some vague term used around here, sort of like "libbrul" is used on Fox Noise. Bad people. Bogey man. Etc. Sort of like the Great Pumpkin or something.

I know negativity is prevalent in politics. I've been around enough Republicans in my time to recognize it when I see it. I still find it the weakest of arguments to support a point of view, and the most cliché-prone, which leads to Joanne Worley's classic five second trademark comment.

if you want to throw dust in the air.

If you look at it that way, then why be against Republicans?

I mean, I have been against Republicans because THEY were corpratists. They favor policies which favor the rich and the corporations.

But I guess if that is just some vague term, then I have been wrong to oppose them, just as I am wrong to oppose Democrats who promote Republican policies. NAFTA was good. The repeal of Glass Steagal was good. The Clinton tax cuts of 1996 were good. Welfare reform was good. Anything any Democrat proposes is good. Go team.

some of it was deserved. He is forgiven for pretty much everything because he prosecuted WW2 brilliantly. That wipes out a LOT of mistakes. But he was the ULTIMATE corporatist--that's how he made his money. He farted through silk. He was entitled. His fortune was made on the backs of workers. He never had to worry about money, from the day he was born until the day he died.

Yes, he was good on social programs, but that's because the nation was STARVING. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and he responded with just that. But he wasn't universally "pro-worker." But he also oversaw an administration that jailed people for being descendants of the enemy, he tried to pull off a court packing scheme that, had Dumbya tried the same thing, would have had everyone here apoplectic,

No one is all one thing--saint, sinner, good, evil, hero, bum. Who knows what FDR's priorities might have been had he not been confronted with economic depression followed by world war?

And "SHE" doesn't talk like a "class traitor" to my ear. Not one bit.

of tens of thousands for 600% profit, maybe in 1941 the intelligence was as skewed as in 2004 .

what's your goal in pointing out the imperfections of FDR ? It's not going to elevate anybody else's idea of a person who hasn't taken responsibility for one vote, bad decision they've made .

Can you point out to me the part where I used the word 'perfect'?

Here's what I wrote.

"But a whole bunch of us have always been united as well - in a negative way. That is, we are against Corporate Democrats, DINOs, Blue Dogs, and DLCers. Often that means we are against our own party. In fact, some are so much against it, that they are not even part of it. Still they would perhaps like to be if we could get a candidate more like FDR and less like WJC."

how you believe that FDR and WJC differed on actual issues.

virtue. The truth of the matter is this--were he alive and in charge today, the same people who are praising him would be eager to bury him, just as the same people who were rabid and virulent about Obama the Candidate are the same people who are vicious about him as POTUS.

I'm tired of the nonsense. FDR, who understood the value of surveillance, was the man for his time. And a lot of people worked and saved when Clinton was President.

If you seriously think, absent the war (which solved a LOT of problems) FDR would have continued to fund all those give-away programs he instituted to, quite rightly, keep people from starving (real starving, as is stomach stuck to the backbone starving), once the econmy righted itself, you have a bit of calibration to do. I don't think you understand quite how DIRE the Great Depression was. By comparison, the very WORST period following those terrible years would have been called "Happy Days Are Here Again."

...

Though I suspect there would have been rejoicing...

There would be zero rejoicing. You are much loved around here.

Grave dancing on real DU members is not something I've ever seen.

If Scalia or Alito should join, however, that will be an "inoperative" statement.

....from pissing in every thread. I do not get it.

By the way, I haven't had succotash since I left my parents' house and my mother couldn't make me any more. Just one of those things, I guess. But you just start an OP with that in the subject line, and people will be coming out of the woodwork to declare what a True Democrat would think and say about succotash.

I'll have to remember that one.

"Can't stop themselves from pissing in every thread." Unfortunately, I don't have to remember that one. I get reminded with just about every thread I open (succotash threads excepted, and even that may not last if the pro- and anti-lima bean factions really get worked up).

They ARE in every thread, you're right. But it's like Lyme disease. IF an infected deer tick bites you and gives you Lyme disease, you get treated, take your antibiotics and get yourself cured. It's no use yelling at the tick. It doesn't realize it gave you Lyme disease, and if it did, it wouldn't care anyway.

And I also love Democratic presidential candidates. What that says about me I will leave to others to judge.

But let me say this. Anybody who is willing to tear a partisan Net site apart over candidate choice this far before an election is not working for the party whose name appears in the site's name. Or maybe they are mere children, who only want to disrupt.

I support the Democratic Party. Some here... not so much so.

But we do have much in common with regards to the rest of what you said.

I have no idea whether I'm for or against it...

I love this thread

Some people add other vegetables, or use the term for combos of other veggies, but that's the essential recipe!!!!

I love lima beans, and I'm not ashamed of it. And combining a legume (lima beans) with a grain (corn) results in a perfect protein! What's not to love?

Bring on the succotash!

I would like to think it will raise the bar here -- would like to be pleasantly surprised too!

Will remember this post if I am ever offered succotash --- will be inclined to decline!

of discussion boards. These kinds of flamewars happen on just about all of them.

When I was younger, I did use to think it was so important to get my point across. I mean, I still think that, but no conversation that happens here is worth getting even kind of angry, so I let a lot go, and use ignore liberally. Trash threads for the faddish topics that come to dominate every single thread in GD every month or so.

xchrom brought SO much to my attention in terms of inequality and issues relating to GLBT people, and I will miss him very much.

I learned this about life and death the hard way. About a month ago one of my coworkers died and his death affected me in a way that I would never imagine. It happened while he was at the gym. I mean think about if someone who you work with for 15+ years and knew pretty well outside of the office was suddenly no longer there. He was fine one minute, the next massive heart attack. Nearly everyone at my company went to his memorial service, and I even saw people who I used to work with come and pay tribute. But ever since it's really made me question existentially as well raise questions about health. I mean if it could happen to him, it could happen to anybody. And I realized that there is no room in life for petty bickering. I hope people here will have that same realization.

To get decent discussions on the different candidates. Things are so partisan it's not even funny. I like Bernie's economic views, but am apprehensive about his social justice attitude, especially after how he responded about his icky essay. I like Clinton's social justice views, but dislike her economic views. However, I cannot find reasonable discussions about these isdues, because partisan supporters are apparently incapable of proper discussion, sans personal attacks, snide comments and determination to run the oppsing candidate thru mud.

So I'm not deciding for a candidate until I have to, not because of the candidates themselves, but because of their supporters.

you can't pay for this entertainment

They need a new plot line, and fast.

"I don't mind Jesus. It's his fan club I can't stand."