The Wednesday Weekly Whacky Award Goes To

It’s Thursday, and that means the SC&A Academy of Extremely Peculiar Pathologies, is pleased to announce the winners of the Weekly Wednesday Whackjob Awards, commonly referred to as the ‘Whacky’s.’

First, some fine print: nominations will open each week until 10:00 PM, EST (After the broadcast of House, M.D.).

That’s it for the fine print.

The Judging Committee at the SC&A Institute are pleased to announce that this week’s variety and assortment of fools are a particularly amusing group of whack jobs.

OK, on with this week’s show, broadcast from the finely appointed showrooms of humanerestraints.com (a Disney company). This years selection of restraints are made from the finest leather, highlighted with Corinthian chrome cinctures.

A ‘Whacky‘ has been been awarded this week in each of the following categories:

The Thorazine Shuffle and Dance Award, each week to the politician who dances and shuffles without actually addressing reality or answering a question. Once again, the award is presented to presented to House Leader Nancy Pelosi, member in good standing of the House Select Committee Of Most Corrupt Legislators, for lecturing the President on ethics.

Ms Pelosi, whose foreign policy faux pas were excoriated by anyone with an IQ over 11, is not satisfied to have her credibility only impugned when it comes to diplomacy abroad. It is now clear that her intention is to be just as credible in domestic matters. Harry Reid is on the plan in the hope that his support for Ms Pelosi will result in yet more pork for his cronies back home.

The Thomas Szasz Psychotherapy Award, presented each week to the biggest idiot therapist is awarded week to a psychiatric patient, Tristano Ajmone.

First, a few words from his manifesto:

“Facing psychiatry you have to fight even to simply survive. Those who have experienced the ritual tortures of today’s psychiatry know how hard it is to survive — not only physically, but also mentally — psychiatry’s torments and its masked cruelty. Ritual menticide is no longer an Orwellian circumstance of the famous novel 1984, it’s the institutional routine of today’s mental health system. The famous words «anything you say can be used against you» are today more relevant to the psychiatric psychopolice — which has the right to revoke citizens’ freedom in an arbitrary and systematic way — than it is to ordinary police forces.”

And just who is this expert?

I have spent several consecutive years in Italian psychiatric institutes, from OPGs (Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari — Judiciary Psychiatric Hospitals: Psychiatric Prisons) to private clinics and «therapeutic» communities (Italian euphemisms for psychiatric facilities differ from the English ones). Even though my psychiatric journey is tied to a judiciary measure, it’s a misfortune that could happen to anyone… it could even happen to you!

I have met men who were locked up in OPGs only because deemed «socially dangerous». The «crimes» that brought them in those facilities are often hasty acts resulting from inner-despair situations. Having been deprived of the right to defend themselves in court, because discredited by psychiatrist who branded them «incapable of intending and willing» (Italian insanity defense cornerstone formula), these people soon found themselves locked up in a ghastly, atrocious reality — places and situations that cannot but exacerbate the original sufferance that brought them there…

I have seen my Muslim brothers tied to restraint beds, deprived of their right to perform the five obligatory daily prayers.

(The fact that they may have been stark raving mad and dangerous to themselves or others, is apparently of no consequence to Mr Ajmone)

Paging Dr Sanity, paging Shrinkwrapped, paging Neo, paging Gagdad Bob and Petey…

The Valium Award, presented to the dullard of the week goes to Billyboy, author of The Most Boring Weblog In The World. Here is s sampling of fresh and scintillating content:

I am moving in two days and everything mostly is packed, the new house is clean and only a 5 minute drive from the place I am at now and we are ready…

I got really really sick of that Pussycat Dolls song “Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me” or whatever it is called. Finally the series is over and Asia is the new Pussycat Doll. If you compare the show to American Idol you have to notice how interesting the characters are especially when they have cat fights. I watched for the T and A but in the end I was a little disappointed with the whole idea….who cares about joining a stripper band?

Anyway there is apparently going to be another season…

My highlight of the show when they were told that it was supposed to look artistic when they dance not slutty, and in the next scene they were dancing in windows at a strip club.

Well just as promised by the passport guy I just received my Canadian passport in the mail today and it only took four weeks.

There seems to be a lot of hype about the length of time that it takes to get a passport but when I went a few weeks ago it took a couple of hours in line to get my application in and it would have been even faster if I would have filled out the passport application online…

Riveting stuff. Kind of cool too, in a dull way.

The Trojan Award is presented each week to the person we wish had never been born. This weeks winner is the girl who believed the guy that told her,

I told this girl that I had surgery done, and they used cheetah blood for a transfusion, and now I could run really fast, and she believed it completely.

The girl has announced her desire for children. The State Legislature has been called into emergency session to revisit the issue of forced sterilization.

The NutriSystem “I’m Not So disgusting to My Spouse Anymore” Award, given to the biggest loser of the week, goes to the guy who effectively used the pickup line,

“Somebody must have beat the hell outta you with a pretty bat”

Publishers are reporting a large decline in the sale of poetry titles.

The Haldol Honor, awarded each week to the person or persons most out of touch with reality, either on or off medication goes to Roger Bean.

A man was held Wednesday on charges that he performed dental work on customers without a license in his “filthy” garage, authorities said. Roger Bean, 60, was arrested Tuesday and held on $6,000 bond.

Bean performed denture fittings and made false teeth in his garage, charging just $200 for a full set of dentures, a procedure that typically costs more than $2,000, authorities said. But he was not licensed to practice in Florida.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s detective Don Zumpano said there were “health risks with operating this type of facility outside of your house,” adding that Bean’s workspace was “filthy.”

Neighbors and clients, however, praised Bean for saving them thousands of dollars.

Ron St. Mary, 73, head of the neighborhood crime watch, said Bean is no criminal.

“He’s helping the old people who don’t have a few dollars,” he said. “I think the world of him.”

It was not immediately clear if Bean had an attorney.

The entire Bean clan are dedicated to the frugal living lifestyle. Brother Norman Bean is a self taught neuro-surgeon working out of Johnny-on-the-Spot.

The Methamphetamine Medal, awarded each week to the most hyper, histrionic, hysterical, spaced out documented behavior goes to mechanic Robert Steinwirt.

It’s Dog Day Afternoon – the Austrian version. A man has been jailed after robbing a bank to pay for a breast operation for his transvestite lover.

It’s reported that car mechanic Robert Steinwirt, 29, was caught just hours after he handed over the 7,000 pounds he had robbed from the bank in Grinzens, Austria, to a plastic surgeon who he hoped would perform the op on his transvestite lover.

The surgeon reportedly called police because he was suspicious that the mechanic wanted to pay him so much money in cash up front for the operation.

Steinwert has been sentenced to six years in prison.

In the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, Al Pacino plays a man who robs a bank to finance his lover’s gender reassignment surgery. The movie was based on a real-life robbery, committed by John Wojtowicz in Brooklyn in 1972.

The Viagra Statuette, awarded to the wimpiest metro sexuals, goes to Matthew Dow, a man who believed he is making a difference.

A US carpenter in Maine is branching out from his normal trade of tables and cabinets after being asked to make a coffin for a pet.

Matthew Dow is now selling his pet coffins through pet stores and veterinary clinics, and can provide grieving pet owners with coffins in four sizes, ranging from £50 to £200.

At the moment each coffin is custom-made, but Mr Dow is hoping to be able to build up a stock so the satin-lined coffins can be available as soon as they are needed.

The ECT Battery Award, presented to the most shocking news story of the week, goes to the woman who swallowed her pride and announced to the world her child’s mediocrity- as well as her own lack of common sense.

British firefighters said on Wednesday they had come to a boy’s rescue after he got a toilet seat stuck on his head.

The toddler, aged two-and-a-half, and his mother walked into a fire station in Braintree, Essex, Tuesday saying the boy had put his head through a small trainer seat for the toilet and now could not remove it.

“His mum had tried to get it over his head but couldn’t budge it so she walked him down here and asked us to have a look at it and we went to work and we managed to get it off in no time,” firefighter Chris Cox said.

“We simply put some dish washing liquid on his head and ears and it slid off nice as pie.”

He said the boy had been “very brave” and “toddled away as happy as can be” after his ordeal ended.

The child went home and promptly went to play with the bidet. While at the fire station, the mom who discovered the lubricating properties of soap, also discovered that Ramen noodles in a Styrofoam cup need not be emptied into a pot for cooking.

Finally, The HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) Prize awarded weekly to the loudest and most inconsequential feminist drivel the SC&A jury can find. This week’s winner is Amanda Marcotte (of whom we had higher expectations!)

In a previous installment of “Are Wingnuts Aware Of How They Don’t Conceal Their Psychosexual Issues Well?”, we found wingnut Ace of Spades assuming outright that if a series of women give up wanting to fuck him after trying him out for about a week, it’s because they have a problem and probably don’t like sex..

Because I’m prone to speculation, I suggested that men, especially sexist pigs, who find themselves in a situation where women routinely taste the goods and opt out may, just may, be a tad selfish in bed to the point where there’s no point in sleeping with them. But see, my explanation for the situation can safely be written off as just more evidence that there’s nothing wrong with sexist pigs, just something wrong with the entire half of the human race called “women”. Which is to say, I could only be saying that out of feminazi man-hatred…

The funny thing is that in a general sense, I agree with Ace—fear of putting your face in the pussy and contempt for the idea that your female partner should have fun in the sack are not signs that a guy is gay, but usually better signs that he’s sexually immature and sexist.

(and all women ought to love going on a guy- and if she doesn’t, she’ s immature and sexist- a point with SC&A agree….)

Amanda, Ace was kidding.

Now while we’re on the topic of crazy, be sure to visit Dr Sanity’s Carnival Of The Insanities for more bizarre, arcane, insane and incredible examples of what can be found in the whackosphere, blogosphere, MSM and NASA. As a world class expert on organic waste disposal in space, Dr Sanity’s voice is well regarded.

Nancy Pelosi Talking About Ethics? ETHICS?

Nancy Pelosi believes that President Bush should sign the ‘Retreat From Iraq And Screw The Consequences’ bill, passed by the House and Senate.

Nancy Pelosi is the last person on Capital Hill to be talking about ethics.

If Ms Pelosi were so concerned with ethics, she would have investigated Senator Diane  Feinstein and her husband, a Pentagon contractor that was awarded contracts that Ms Feinstein approved and oversaw, including a single contract for $600 million, with a potential of additional revenues that would bring the total contract value up to $3.1 billion dollars.

Instead, Ms Pelosi and her fellow Democrats obsess over Dick Cheney, who has long severed ties all ties with Halliburton.

If Nancy Pelosi were so concerned with ethics, she would have investigated Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, whose only demonstrated expertise is in the area of corruption.

Mr Ethics, Harry Reid (who happily took money from Jack Abrahamoff, then denied it, then admitted it, and then refused to return the money) is backing what promises to be one of Nevada’s largest real estate development proposals. In fact, Mr Reid wanted the feds to part with valuable federal lands for nothing. When that came to light, the developer (a good friend of Mr Reid’s)- without a peep- agreed to pay ten million dollars for the land.

In fact, the developer and Mr Reid have ties that go back a long way. The developer/lobbyist, Harvey Whittemore, is a longtime friend and financial backer of Harry Reid. Of course, lawyers are always the front people for deal of this magnitude. ‘Leif Reid, who is Whittemore’s personal lawyer, has represented the developer throughout the Coyote Springs project, including in negotiations with federal officials.’ What a good daddy.

To put things in perspective, the size of the deal must be appreciated. The Coyote Springs Valley project calls for ‘as many as 159,000 homes, 16 golf courses and a full complement of stores and service facilities. At nearly 43,000 acres, Coyote Springs covers almost twice as much space as the next-largest development in a state famous for out-sized building projects. ‘ The project has been referred to as being of ‘historic proportions.’

We noted in Culture Of Corruption And Playing In The Mud that

The Empress Dowager of the Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, is fond of accusing her Republican counterparts of harboring a ‘culture of corruption.’ Her Majesty has a short memory. Notwithstanding her self righteous call, The Emperor Dowager is rather fond of corruption. As Minority House Leader, Ms Pelosi has often spoken of lobbying reform and ethical issues. She has stated she would like to see a ban on House members accepting gifts from lobbyists.

What Ms Pelosi does not want to remember is that in 1995 she voted against a provision “to prohibit registered lobbyists from giving gifts to members, officers, or employees of the House and Senate.” The Empress Dowager wasn’t alone. She was joined by Steny Hoyer, the then number two Democrat in the House. That ‘culture of corruption’ is clearly very addictive to Ms Pelosi and others in her party.

Just how addictive that culture of corruption is becomes quite clear with a bit of hindsight.

In speaking of the Abrahamoff scandal and other improprieties, John Boehner noted Ms Pelosi’s hypocrisy:

“When I hear Democratic Party leaders throwing around terms like ‘culture of corruption,’ I have to think: ‘You oughta know.’
“Yes, Republicans are outraged by the actions of Jack Abramoff. But we’re outraged, in part, because our standards are higher than the standards that were held by the Democratic majority we replaced after 1994. We are repulsed at Abramoff and his crimes, in part, because they remind us of the corruption we uprooted and stamped out when we took the majority away from the Democrats a decade ago.

“Minority Leader Pelosi, who has served in Congress since 1987 and was part of the last Democratic majority, should recall that corruption well. It wasn’t that long ago that gifts and personal loans from S&L interests to a Democratic committee chairman, made in hopes of winning favorable treatment from regulators, resulted in a half-trillion dollar scandal and a $125 billion tab for the American taxpayer. Nor was it that long ago that the Democratic chairman of the House Administration Committee stood idly by while drugs were being dealt from the House Post Office, hundreds of Members of Congress were bouncing checks and floating themselves zero-interest loans from the House Bank, and lobbyists were being given assigned parking spots on the Capitol grounds. Nor was it that long ago that the Democratic chairman of the Ways & Means Committee was trading taxpayer-purchased stamps for personal cash, leading to his conviction and jail time in 1993.

“An honorable majority responds to its stumbles with contrition, reform, and an effort to fix that which is broken. This is precisely the path Speaker Hastert and Chairman Dreier have charted for our majority in recent days. I applaud the Speaker for his leadership, and challenge Minority Leader Pelosi to join Republicans in our effort to change the way Congress works.”

So much for the Empress Dowager’s credibility as a beacon of morality and ethics.
See this, too.

The Promise

This post is the 4th in a series. Here are links to parts one, two and three. The 5th and final article in this series will be published tomorrow.

These posts may also be accessed from the sidebar, under ‘Pages.’

How does political and/or ideological indoctrination work? Surprisingly, the process is fairly simple. Wilfrid Bion explained the process:

The child (or even adult) is taught that he is part something much bigger than him or herself. The individual is taught that because of that affiliation, the are very special, and expression of narcissism that celebrates the self (an expression of which is necessary component of every healthy individual) is frowned upon. It is because of that affiliation with the group, they are loved.

Those outside the group are rejected at best and hated and reviled at worst. This is not hard to grasp: Within the group, there is love. Non members or members of different groups are ignored or rejected- they are outsiders. If and when those outsiders reject the group or cling to their own group, they become hated.

It bears remembering that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When the ‘love’ offered by the group by virtue of attachment to that group is so strong, so to is the hate proffered by that group, directed at outsiders. The group leaders control the ‘volume’ of hate. The closer group leaders control their followers, the more they focus that hate on the chosen ‘others.’

What we see in the Middle East are members of a group so desirous of love (worthiness) and attention, that they make a deliberate choice to opt out of the rules that define civilized society. They refuse to deal with or even interact with non members. This is no small matter or self imposed isolation. Human progress of every single type has it’s origins in the interaction we have with each other. By deliberately choosing to not participate in an honest exchange with others, or by believing that forced or coerced interactions (i.e., believing that forced religious conversions denote religious embrace) are the equivalent of real exchanges, many in the Arab world separate themselves from the reality, even as they perceive that their forced interactions place them center stage, or in a position to dictate reality. The Cartoon Riots are an example of that. In the end, free speech in the west will not simply disappear (notwithstanding shrill cries to the opposite).

In any event, as the individual withdraws from reality into the fantasy love/respect the group offers, the stage is set for the terrorist and (even more importantly) the terrorist supporter. The hate fueled by the group nurtures envy (“what they have is rightfully ours”) and sadism (we will punish them for their evil. We are the righteous ones”).

That level of intense hate is matched only the level of intense love (and therefore ‘worthiness’) bestowed by the group. Death becomes an expression of fidelity to the group. Murder and killing on behalf of the group bestows an ultimate morality in the absence of any kind of morality (“of course we can justify the murder of innocents and civilians) of the group.

From an early age, Palestinians are taught that martyrdom is the ultimate expression of fidelity to the group and the ultimate expression of the elevated self. Terror and murder are the vehicles in which one can achieve fulfillment as a Muslim, Palestinian and as an individual. Terror and murder are celebrated. When a suicide bomber completes his deed, there are celebrations in the local mosque. His or her actions elevate the rest of the congregation. It is as if there were a competition among churches as to which might provide the most saints.

These expressions are not only religious in nature. Schools, media and entertainment reinforce the message. There is a whole subculture that reinforces that culture, not unlike American gang culture. Gang members are willing to die for their ‘colors.’ A kind of code of ethics (religion) permeates the culture and there is an entire subculture of entertainment and art that feeds and glorifies that culture.

Suicide bombers and terrorists are glorified. Parents are regaled as almost equal to the shahid, for having raised and encouraged a child to go off to his death, murdering as many non members of the group as possible. Those parents become elevated in status and morality, precisely because their child embraced the immorality of indiscriminate murder. The prestige bestowed (and thus the dysfunction) is so great that many other parents harbor wishes for the same recognition. They are willing to sacrifice their own children. It is not uncommon to hear the refrain that ‘we love death,’ not because of the finality of death but rather, because of the desperate belief that in death will come a kind of relief. The restrictive bonds of life under tyranny (Palestinians and the Arab world are well aware of who their leaders are) will be broken- a new, more pure ‘life’ awaits them on the other side. Even talk of sexual pleasures unavailable in conservative Arab societies, can be talked about within a religious context. A teenager, consumed with own sexuality- and feeling guilty about that obsession- often sees his own shahada as a kind of redemption in addition to the skewed religious and moral expressions he or she was taught to believe.

The shahid and his or her family have to believe that. They cannot question those who define the afterlife, because to question that would be too painful. They understand that the ideologues that encourage young men and women to their deaths are corrupt. They understand that those ideolgues define religion in any way that best suits their needs at any given time. They understand that deceit is as much part of the ideology as is religion (“Jews never had a Temple. The Bible is forged. Jesus was really a Muslim”).

To question the basis of Palestinian shahada (martyrdom) is to question the predicates and foundation of the group.

That is why Muslim apostates are reviled and feared in their community and not simply ignored. One who leaves the group, knows the group. The non member is hated because he is a non member, and perceived to reject the group without knowing the group (“Come learn about Islam, get to know us. We are not as we seems”) The apostate is reviled because he refuses to accept the ‘love’ (worthiness) of a flawed and murderous ideology. The apostate thinks for himself, a cardinal sin in the Arab world. There is a reason the quality of education in the Arab world is so abysmal. An educated citizen thinks for himself and does not need to rely on the group to do that for him. An educated citizen finds his own self worth, in his community and beyond. The Arab citizen cannot compete outside his own environment. He sheltered by deliberately imposed ignorance. This is not his fault. Arabs are the greatest victims of their own leadership.

To be clear, not all Palestinians or Arabs are enamored with the ‘love’ of Islam and Arab societies bestows upon their culture and society. There are other voices that reject the ideologies that have served to degenerate and subjugate Islam and the Arab world.

Nonie Darwish is one of them. The daughter of a decorated ‘guerrilla’ fighter, she acknowledges that all she was taught was wrong. More importantly, she finds something more distressing than the hate. In discussing Arab culture and societal norms, she notes

To admit one’s flaws and mistakes, to correct and repent is inconceivable…

To acknowledge one’s shortcomings before first blaming others would bring deep shame and dishonor not only to the individual but to his or her entire family…If the mistake is a cultural taboo, one’s reputation may be scarred for life and the perpetrator might end up brutally punished.

This is the kind of environment that allows for and justifies ‘honor killings.’ This is also how many young women are recruited into terror. If they are thought to have shamed the family, an act of terror serves as act of redemption for their family as well as themselves. The higher ‘morality’ of indiscriminate killing of innocents makes up for their transgressions.

This highlights another reality. In Arab cultures, there is no real reward or recognition for loving the sanctity of life. Those who profess a desire for real peace, non violence, less corruption and less oppression are considered reformers.

In societies and cultures where violence is often seen after religious services (unique in the Abrahamic faiths). little emphasis is placed on self improvement, the betterment of society (the ‘real jihad,’ we are told) or humility. Rather, worshipers are whipped into a murderous frenzy directed at non members. Each week, the hate is elevated.

These realities have brought Arab nations to their knees. Repression, oppression, terror, genocide and hate flourish. Entire populations are groomed to know only hopelessness, and not hope. There are failed economies, failed civil infrastructures and failed educational infrastructures. A child born in the Arab world today has little hope of achieving success on his own. There is little in the way of opportunities or a way out if the bleakness. There is no bright future to look forward to.

The only promise and guarantee that child can count on, is being taught to hate.