Donald Trump has reached into the fevered recesses of the right-wing id yet again – and his crowds love him for it. The Hill reports that at a primary election-eve rally in Charleston, South Carolina, Trump told a supposed story about how Gen. John Pershing dealt with Muslim terrorists in the U.S.-occupied Philippines of the early… Continue reading “And they love him for it”
Category: The Shadow Knows
Catholic guilt
God knows, the Catholic church has given us plenty of cause to doubt them on child sexual assault cases. But this story is really disturbing — and the author, Ralph Cipriano, is one of the few journalists who took on the Catholic church when it was still unthinkable — and lost his job at the Philadelphia Inquirer over it. So this is not someone trying to make excuses for abusive priests — and means, once again, we have a case of prosecutors chasing headlines and not the truth. Go read the whole sorry story:
Meanwhile, four men were sent to jail because of Gallagher’s accusations, and one of those men died in prison. At Engelhardt’s funeral, the Reverend James Greenfield, the provincial who leads the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, revealed that on the eve of his criminal trial, Engelhardt could have negotiated a deal that would gotten him off with just community service. Instead, he got sentenced to six to 12 years in prison “because he would not perjure himself by pleading guilty to ‘make a deal,’ to admit to a crime that he did not commit.”
Talk to the eight defense lawyers in the criminal cases and they’ll all tell you Daniel Gallagher is a chronic liar, a junkie hustler and a confabulator. They can’t believe how lucky he’s been. After the DA got Gallagher out of jail so he could tell his stories of sexual abuse, he was arrested twice on charges of drug possession, including one bust for possession with intent to distribute 56 bags of heroin. But, thanks to his criminal lawyer, that heroin was thrown out of court as evidence. A subsequent drug bust, on charges of possession of a controlled substance, also disappeared after nine continuances in 18 months, when the DA let Gallagher into an accelerated rehab program for which he ordinarily would not have been eligible.
Today, Daniel Gallagher is a free man with a clean record living in Florida with his new wife, who’s expecting the couple’s first child. And, thanks to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he’s also a multimillionaire.
Team sports build character!
We can always find a reason not to care
I don’t know where we get the idea that our capacity for compassion and empathy, that our desire for justice and our pursuit of it by whatever means we have, is finite. I don’t know where we get the idea that there is only so much. I don’t know where we get the idea that there’s… Continue reading “We can always find a reason not to care”
Army of God cheers Planned Parenthood killer
The anti-abortion group “Army of God” believes Planned Parenthood got what it deserved. Nevermind that innocent people were killed. Virginia-based anti-abortion activist Donald Spitz, who runs the “Army of God” website, similarly stated after Dr. George Tiller was murdered that the he “reaped what he sowed” and hosts a page celebrating those who have been convicted… Continue reading “Army of God cheers Planned Parenthood killer”
A ‘textbook case’
This is interesting. Yes, Donald Trump is clearly mentally ill. You almost have to have something wrong with you to want to be president, but there is that and there is this:
A striking number of leading mental health experts are concerned enough about the possibility of a Trump presidency that they’re willing to speak out, publicly, about the candidate’s “Textbook narcissistic personality disorder.”
During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, developmental psychologist Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, referred to Trump as “remarkably narcissistic,” while clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis used the term “Textbook narcissistic personality disorder,” to describe Trump.
Michaelis went on to explain,
“In the field we use clusters of personality disorders. Narcissism is in cluster B, which means it has similarities with histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. There are similarities between them.”
Going on, Michaelis described Trump’s constant belittling of other people as a ‘symptom’ of a deeper problem.
“To degrade people is really part of a cluster-B personality disorder: it’s antisocial and shows a lack of remorse for other people. The way to make it O.K. to attack someone verbally, psychologically, or physically is to lower them. That’s what he’s doing.”
Michaelis expressed his concerns about a Trump presidency, saying,
“He’s applying for the greatest job in the land, the greatest task of which is to serve, but there’s nothing about the man that is service-oriented. He’s only serving himself.”
Indeed, narcissism is characterized with by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, as well as a lack of concern or empathy toward others.
While it was once thought that narcissists were overcompensating for low self-esteem, the latest research suggests that narcissistic personality disorder is defined by a sincere belief that you are superior to others.
According to Psychology Today, “the latest evidence indicates that narcissists are actually secure or grandiose,” not just on a superficial level, but on a subconscious level as well.
[…] “He’s very easy to diagnose,” psychotherapist Charlotte Prozan told Vanity Fair. “In the first debate, he talked over people and was domineering. He’ll do anything to demean others,” she said.
George Simon, a clinical psychologist who specializes in manipulative personalities, told Vanity Fair that Trump is “so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there’s no better example of his characteristics.” He went on to say that without Trump, he “would have had to hire actors and write vignettes,” to illustrate the narcissistic personality disorder for his students. He described the candidate as “a dream come true,” at least from the perspective of having a boatload of free material to use during student lectures.
Study: Mid-life crisis is real
Also known to astrologers as the Uranus opposition, but what the hell do they know?
Is the midlife crisis real or is it more pop-psychology hype? A new study suggests most of us are indeed unhappy with our lives somewhere in our early forties. Satisfaction follows a U-shape curve across the lifespan, reaching rock bottom somewhere around age 40, only to rise again thereafter, say the University of Melbourne researchers. “This… Continue reading “Study: Mid-life crisis is real”
Why angry women lose influence in arguments
Go ahead, ask any woman you know what it’s like to be dismissed out of hand.
When a woman loses her cool and gets angry during an argument, she’s often dismissed as emotional and irrational — terms that only females tend to get labelled. When males express anger, on the other hand, their expressions are often seen as intimidating and influential. A new study examines why female anger is dismissed far too… Continue reading “Why angry women lose influence in arguments”
By their works, ye shall know them
They beat the love of God into them:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York couple was charged with manslaughter in the death of their 19-year-old son after allegedly beating him for hours during a family counseling session inside the “sanctuary room” of an upstate Christian church, police said on Wednesday.
The victim’s parents, Bruce Leonard, 65, and Deborah Leonard, 59, were arraigned on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. They were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail each.
In addition, four of the couple’s fellow parishioners were charged with assaulting the teenager’s younger brother on Sunday at the Word of Life Church in Chadwicks, New York, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Syracuse.
“Both brothers were continually subjected to physical punishment over the course of several hours in the hopes that each would confess to prior sins and ask for forgiveness,” Michael Inserra, chief of the New Hartford Police, said at a news conference.
Is Hastert going to jail?
You know, I’ve had a couple of stressful weeks, but I read this and I think, “At least I’m not Denny Hastert!”
Federal prosecutors in Chicago want former House Speaker Dennis Hastert to serve prison time to resolve a criminal indictment charging he violated federal banking law when he withdrew about $900,000 in cash to pay to an unnamed associate as part of an effort to cover up past misconduct, sources said.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors are negotiating a plea deal that they will take before U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin, according to sources close to the case. The deal, details of which are still emerging, would likely call for Hastert to spend more than a year behind bars, one source said.
A hearing on the case is set for Thursday morning in federal court in Chicago. Hastert, who has been in seclusion since pleading not guilty to the charges, is not expected to appear or enter a plea at that session.
Both sides in the case confirmed late last month that they were in plea talks, but signs of a deal became more concrete Tuesday when — despite a court deadline — defense lawyers did not file motions challenging the case.
[…] Hastert, who retired from the House in 2007, was indicted in May on charges of structuring bank withdrawals to avoid federal reporting requirements and lying to the FBI about what he did with the money. The indictment said that from 2012 to 2014 Hastert withdrew $952,000 in increments of less than $10,000 after a bank official warned him that larger amounts would be reported to federal authorities. The federal charges said the money was part of $1.7 million the former speaker paid and a total of $3.5 million he promised to pay to compensate for “past misconduct” against a longtime acquaintance and to compensate for that misconduct.
Guess he’s paying for molesting that kid and maybe even more, even though he’s not being charged. Seems like they want to hush up the scandal of the former GOP Speaker of the House being a pedophile.