MrPragmatic's Comments (62)

“I guess places in the US aren't exotic enough locales for a has-been egomaniac like Madonna to get off her polo horse and care about.”

“Agree !”

“Both are important. Give to both. Sacrifice is not a dirty word. It's a grace and a blessing.”

“Mr. Pragmatic I am proud and glad you found what works for you!!”

“It all starts with the common refrain (taunt?) "What do you want to be when you grow up?" What a terrible statement, as it forces the innocent child to formulate ideas beyond their reach, jamming a child's mind with misguided, poorly considered responses. This is reinforced over and over. Also implied, here, is that one is nothing until they pick a career. There are better ways!

Then there's mass hypnosis regarding higher education. Most 18-year olds are not equipped to make real career decisions at this stage; only a small percentage really are. How many of those, after having spent $100K (or more) of Mom and Dad's money, end up in a job that's related to what they studied? Not many. The constant promotion of the idea that 18-year olds have reached a proper threshold for making this decision is, I believe, tied to education-­as-industr­y, where the goal is to get as many paying customers through the doors as possible.

Yes, it would be very refreshing if intelligence was considered to be a broader basket than "what do you do for a living?". And, possibly, less isolating, and possibly more productive.”

“Mr. Pragmatic I love that you used the word cognitive dissonance­... Leon Festinger (sorry if I spelled your name wrong LF) would be proud.

Some people, like myself do need medication because I have not made it to your way Mr. Pragmatic. I unfortunately have the kind of depression that if not treated no matter what my mind knows is true about me (that I can do amazing things, etc.) doesn't answer back that way. I know cognitvely what is wrong but I can't make that depression go away. It will take time just as everything that means something real does take time.”

“True, for many, about what you say not being able to be in one's element.

Furthermore, the persistently circulated notion of forming one's identity through the WORK one does, is just as much a detriment to one's mental health, imo.”

“Interesting comment.
And those are too few and far between, so thank you for taking the time to write it.”

“BPD is one of the HARDEST of all the "personality disorders" to treat. I am reading a nonfiction book about a woman who overcome her BPD and she had a HELL of time doing so!!”

“It's a "Dry" heat !”

“i think fully funded single payer is too great a leap for now.
it would be a disaster.
dems did not come out with enough unity, enough voice backing it
and i believe the reorginization would be disastrous­..
i think that is the reality.

a viable public option is still in the plan, that's what i heard.
there are some important moves in the right direction in the presidents plan. i can live with that.
I hate to see fellow progressives making the same mistake the wacko righties make, in saying that anyone who suports the president's plan is just an airhead , someone who falls for a good speech.. someone who is obviosly shallow and who doesn't really understand anything

.reminds me of all the 'drinking the kool aid ' comments

c'mon progressives, your better than that. thinking progressives and lefties can disagree with out disrespecting each other,.”

“Oh come on, mate!”

“There were only two things in the recent Batman movie that I liked. Keith Ledger's performance and the chase scenes on Lower Wacker drive in Chicago. Oh, also the chase scene at the end of The Blues Brothers also in Chicago is amazing. They end up crashing in the plaza next to the Picasso statue by city hall.”

“both excellent titles, no doubt.
also for chicago, the untouchabl­es...”

“I too was a bit surprised to see Deepak so deeply offended and emotionally affected by an attack from a faux news loon like Hannity.

I can understand wanting to counter his inane babblings with the truth, but at the same time, I found it disingenous to in one breath to say "If you stop blowing you'll be out of a job" and with the next "Love, Deepak".

Still, we're all just human. And it is natural to be upset by someone like Hannity, and I give Deepak credit for being authentic in his reaction to him.”

“Because you can NEVER let the liars get away with their BS for a second!”

“I think you have it all wrong. Deepak Chopra expresed his valid points to increase Hannity's awareness of how negativism is causing right wing implosion. What better way to avoid internalizing negative energy? And wasn't Chopra the essence of good manners and politesse?”

“Oh, I'm sure Bill never called in any favors on Hillary's behalf. It was just her hard work and gosh darn it, gumption! that won her one of the most powerful Senate seats in the country. "Democratic process" my a$$.”

“She won because Rudy Giuliani who was very popular at that time dropped out for health reasons and was replaced by a major idiot. She was merely the lesser of two evils.”

“HRC had a stroke of very good luck when Rudy Guiliani dropped out of the race against her due to his diagnosis of testicular cancer. I'm not so sure that she would have beat him if he had stayed in.”

“I can count the passes Mcclain and Palin got during the campain ,if the issues were Obama issues their would have hung him out to dry .come on!!!!!!!”

“Mr. Pragmatic, the way I see it is; you had the RNC and GOP operatives leaking a whole bunch of seedy, unfounded rumors that should have no place in intelligent discussion. The suggestions were manipulative and void of context. Anyone on this planet can have relationships with people that hold deplorable views in part, or overall. A true pragmatist, like I believe Obama to be, has the ability to listen to opposing views, reject the unfavorable ones, but still embrace the person for the good in them. Lord knows that politicians of all political stripes rub elbows with characters far more shady than Rev. Write, Prof. Aires, etc. I just kept thinking throughout the campaign just how squeaky clean Obama must be for those allegations to be all they had on him! The fact that the MSM acknowledged these cheap manipulative tactics at all was generous, but overall, irresponsible.”

“YOU SAY -they never allowed the narrative that Obama's association with the Rev. Wright was significant or meaningful in any way take hold and gain traction

so, your saying it's the media's job to help GOP talking points gain traction?”

“Evidently you did not watch the same ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC evening news shows I did. Every time I hear the Republicans accuse the MSM of being liberal I wanted to dig out my hip boots and put them on because the BS is so deep. My biggest fear is that my home would start smelling, permanently! The main stream media is ANYTHING but liberal and they have never been liberal. The MSM has been preaching the Republican, neo-conservative, evangelical talking points since 1994 and have been getting more and more hysterical each passing year. The election of 2008 will be known by centerists (right and left) as the breaking point when then rest of the country woke up to the fact that MSM does NOT have working/middle class Americans interests at heart. The MSM is and always has been preaching corporatist policy and interests at the expense of 95% of the American taxpayers. The pendulum has finally swung as far right as it can possibly go and is now slowly starting to move back to the center where MOST of this country is! All I can say is, its about time!”

“You're just dead wrong, and you have no evidence (other than the selectively anecdotal) to support statements like "the MSM pushed back frequently at both Clinton and McCain surrogates while allowing Obama's surrogates to deliver talking points unchecked.­"

The most pro-McCain aspect of the press (which any study with a rational methodology shows is actually _right_-biased) was the way they continued to assent to the McCain's basic good-guy image, regardless of uncountable lies and misrepresentations. His stint in the service and as a POW bought him literally unlimited points that prevented the MSM from hammering him properly as a dishonorable, two-faced candidate who changed multiple positions on critical issues.

They also backed off of Palin's serial lying and the personal hypocrisy of parading her pregnant daughter in front of the cameras for the "family shot," but then crying foul when anything about the pregnancy was published. It was monstrously hypocritical, since very obviously, if the Obamas had had a pregnant teenage daughter and a teenage father who posted crap about how he was gonna "kick your ass," etc., we never would've heard the end of it. Other examples abound.

Overall, the MSM still treats Republicans as the real traditional Americans, if sometimes a bit extreme, and Democrats as the sometimes necessary remedy or punishment for a Republican administration gone wrong. Just wait until they get rolling on Obama--not that it'll make any difference to anyone already convinced of the mythical left-wing bias.”

“Care to cite a couple examples of "the MSM went to extremes to dispel these notions"?”