check your compass:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/26/114144/878

McCain’s faux pas?

As we all now know, Senator McCain is quite astute when it comes to Iraq and what takes place outside the Green Zone. Of course and over time, he’s received very little if any criticism from the mainstream media for his views on Iraq. To wit, he is considered an “expert” on military matters in Iraq, and yet, I would disagree to the extent that McCain is also perceived as an “expert” in the political matters of Iraq.

McCain being a military veteran pre-supposes that his curiosity would in fact make him an “expert” on military matters and as I too think that curiosity applies to most military veterans, here domestically or abroad. However and despite the mainstream media’s efforts to convince us otherwise, McCain is far from being an “expert” in the political affairs of Iraq and on the issues that really do matter to our fellow citizens here in the USA.

Senator McCain in four differing instances, he pontificated that the Iranian government was supplying the support and training to the Al Qaeda, and in particularly the Sunni insurgents. Obviously, McCain “misstated” the factual reality that is quite different. And after being corrected by Senator Lieberman, McCain did it again with his ‘misstatements”. So what is Senator McCain up to?

Like most Neo-Conservatives, and McCain is in the thick of this Neo-Con Cabal, he is emphasizing his belief that Iran’s oil should belong to the dominant population of Iraq, the Shia’s. And to the more observant among us, McCain’s many statements in support of his view that America should remain in Iraq for a 100 years or so, reinforces the potential view that a civil war between the Shias in Iran and the Shias in Iraq, would be fine with him, given that Iranian and Iraqi oil could or would be consolidated and eventually diverted in favor of the United States, and not necessarily for the potential benefit of our allies.

Now for some of our readers, some will disagree with me, and so I would suggest that given the history of the Bush-Cheney Cabal, will McCain be capable of doing “any less” given that McCain sees eye-to-eye with his Neo-Conservatives buds, and which smoothly fits into his self-viewed Second Coming of Teddy Roosevelt–the arch-imperialist, and the Democrats are unwilling to challenge McCain’s view of foreign policy for these past many years? And lest we forget, a large number of Democrats voted affirmatively with the Republicans to seek out Iraq’s oil resources and which has been done so, and on a platform of platitudes, fabrications, and outright lies.

Consequently, come this November’s election, Democrats and Independents will be challenged for having to make a hard choice between McCain and the Democratic nominee, knowing that the Republicans will continue to vote for more War and more Fear. And will the Democrats and Independents exercise their vote in favor of a Self-Restraint Construct and oppose McCain’s neo-conservative view for an even larger and out-of-control Middle East?

So, I will find it quite interesting indeed if McCain does not advocate any serious energy conservation efforts, and in contrast, should the Democratic nominee advocate and “implement” serious energy conservation efforts, we could expect a drop in the price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump in the amount of at least a dollar.

Jaango–posted on March 26, 2008
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Yes, reading comprehension. Don’t forget having an open mind.

The question was why bring up Bipolar in a discussion of McCain?

The question was why does the DSM-IV have so many obviously contradictory criteria within the same diagnosis?

Who are you to debate the credibility of the DSM-IV? What training, education, experience do you have that gives you one bit of authority in discussing the DSM-IV?

The question was, why take a swipe at one branch of the military?

The Navy has a history, especially during the Vietnam era, of not dealing with mental illness. PTSD is indeed a mental illness.

The question was, why deny the obvious requisite of teamwork to steer a nuclear sub between the Scylla and Charybdis of defense vs. ballistics?

Huh? Teamwork? McCain was an Aviator. He was not involved in teamwork other than to be on the receiving end of a great amount of it. His team was there to support him. He did not support his team.

The question was, why diagnose from afar when there are innumerable other mitigating factors that you have no clue about?

Because St. John won’t allow anyone to diagnose him.

The question was, what is wrong with stripping away the Queen Veneer mask, humbly admitting that you don’t know, allowing your ’subject’ to be the expert on themselves, humbly asking them for self-insight and attribution, thereby reducing serious error?

Wow. You really don’t believe in psychotherapy do you?

The question IS, why do pretenders view emotions as suspect, yet create conditions that allow them to hoover up every droplet of expression?
The question IS, why do the robotic types create scenarios that look a lot like Boxing Helena meets Misery?

Huh? You really need to get out more.

YMMV? Yeah, you get a lot of mileage when you avoid the questions.

You sound like you listen to a bit too much Rush.

Lots of stuff to talk about until even the MSM discusses it thoroughly.

This is a good, solid meme to describe the problems with McCain.

PTSD has not been discussed near enough. Of course, the current (mis)administration is working overtime to not discuss this, because a soldier in Iraq is one of “the troops” to be lock-step supported, but a soldier who came home with PTSD is to be ignored.

Does McCain have PTSD? How could he not? How has he dealt with it? What kind of therapy has he gone through to treat it?

The question IS, why do pretenders view emotions as suspect, yet create conditions that allow them to hoover up every droplet of expression?
The question IS, why do the robotic types create scenarios that look a lot like Boxing Helena meets Misery?

YMMV? Yeah, you get a lot of mileage when you avoid the questions.

My partner is a VietNam Vet, and I often think about how my government gave me damaged goods….Why doesn’t anyone admit that?

Would you like a cracker with that bile?

Oh – and BTW – a conflagration is a fire. I believe the word you intended was “conflate”.

[McCain] certainly shows repeated episodes of intense emotional symptoms that repeatedly affect his behavior. I do not suggest he has bipolar disorder (”manic-depressive”disorder). However, a subset of patients with severe bipolar disorder in which the symptoms are not controlled will show patterns of symptoms coming during manic episodes in which their irritable or angry moods will come along with diminished impulse control and severe behavioral symptoms. In this repsect, McCain’s symptoms are similar in severity to those seen in some unfortunate patients with poorly controlled severe bipolar disorder.

To clarify, the majority of people with biploar disorder do not show symptoms as severe as those reportedly observed in McCain.

Another cause for severe symptoms of emotional dyscontrol and behavioral dysinhibtion can be seen in various forms of brain injury – especially frontal lobe injury. Such inijuries may be acute (one big event) or chronic (lots of small events).

[(some) typos corrected - kjm]

Well, given a choice between typing skills and reading comprehension, I’d choose the latter. YMMV, ncopernicus – and in this case, clearly does.

If you are a serving member of the Armed Forces, I do hope you’re not responsible for entering targeting coordinates. If you are, I do hope many eyes check your work. A village – or a nation – is a terrible thing to waste.
I shall endeavor to provide in the comments following my posts a synopsis which you may find comprehensible.

Grasping at irritability as an overlap is one thing, but mania usually shows up with a certain measure of euphoria or grandiosity. If McCain were to show up as a shop-aholic, or started making requests for bare-backing, or declared himself as the Second Coming, those might show some overlap. Not even close.

Dear me – thank you so much for this illustration of the pervasive ignroance regarding Bipolar Spectrum Disorders. Even a broken clock is right twice a day -and hence you appear to have accurately cut and paste the criteria for manic episodes. Good on ‘ya – enjoy the cracker.

Sadly, the ignorance revealed in your comment is quite common among many mental health professionals. This devasting lack of mastery of basic information illustrates the causality behind the lamentable fact that patients with bipolaor disorder suffer a mean lag of twelve years between the time they first present for mental health treatment and the time they ultimately recieve an accurate diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Clinicians competent to diagnose and treat bipolar disorder evince cognizance of the concept of Bipolar II disorder, and hence Bipolar Spectrum Disorder.

The chief difference between Bipolar I and Bipolar II is that – in the latter – patients’ symptoms do not rise to the level of the severe behavioral dysinhibitons you so unchartiably referenced in your comment. In Bipolar II, patients experience hypomanic episodes, but do not suffer manic episodes. The nearest medical school reference librarian can point you to primers that may allow you to operationalize this concept.

Extensive genetic studies of hapless twins separated at birth (courtesy of various Scandanavian social service data banks) robustly illustrate and confirm the genetic – and hence biological – nature of Bipolar Spectrum Disorder.

Should you desire further edification on this concept, I commend to you the work of Akiskal and his colleagues – perhaps a Cliff notes version is available. For those with college-level reading skills, the definitive textbook remains Manic-Depressive Disorder (2nd edition) by Goodwin and Jamison. I recommend this work to all patients and family members contending with biploar disorder – it helps spare them the twelve year lag in diagnosis referenced above.

Thanks for this opportunity to again share information about accurate diagnosis of Bipolar Spectrum Disorder.

You seem to be capable of a series of good strong blows – repeating the operation should clear even your level of bile from the snorkel.

Please don’t forget to let us know: clockwise, or counter-clockwise?

Good luck with the swirlies – swabby?