Sociopath?

I watched football star Michael Vick's recent press conference in the hopes that he might have justified some measure of pity. After all, the man, whose reputation as a decent citizen is severely tarnished, if not ruined, is facing the loss of his career, hundreds of millions of dollars in income, and jail time. Unfortunately, what I saw, and I am no expert in psychiatry, was someone who appeared sociopathic. I do not say such a thing lightly. After all, sociopaths are people without conscience and are therefore the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes imaginable...like murdering a kennel full of dogs by electrocution, hanging, drowning, bludgeoning, etc. etc.

Typically, those with Anti-Personality Disorder, which is a common diagnosis among the criminal element, display no hint of authentic remorse for or real understanding of their crimes. Equally typically, when caught, clever sociopaths, who generally well know the difference between right and wrong but have no compunction about issues of ethics, let alone morality, will cop to understanding the moral compass they clearly lack, and preposterously, quickly claim that they have inculcated it. This is what Michael Vick appeared to do. Dog fighting is wrong he now claims to understand. There is only one problem. Why, after who knows how many years of engaging in such activity, should he? One doesn't anymore unlearn and discard such things in a few days than one walks blindfolded and backward to work.

Ahh, but sociopaths would like you to believe they not only get it, but get it in record time. In this case, the motives are easy to suss out. Vick's sentencing is months away, so finding Jesus (poor Jesus) and offering up that he now knows that dog fighting is wrong, is just the thing to say to get a dog owning judge and one's detractors off one's back. Unfortunately, Mr. Vick, at least to this observer, just wasn't credible.

For me, he gave the game away as to his real nature when he systematically referred to himself in the third person, a typically narcissistic trait. He also, by my runes, did himself no favors by continually referring to himself and his actions as "immature." No, as my wife observed, immature is living with your parents for too long, or not committing to your girlfriend. Training perfectly innocent animals to engage in a savage blood sport, and then cruelly slaughtering the less able ones isn't a sign of immaturity. It's a sign of something badly warped.

NIMBY!

My wife and I just moved to The South End of Boston only to discover that a government high security lethal virus lab attached to the Boston University Medical Center is slated to become part of the neighborhood. By lethal virus, I am referring to the most virulent viral strains known to man like Ebola, Marburg and Anthrax to name a few. The community is being assured by the Feds that the planned lab represents "no serious threat" to the community. I must admit to a personal outbreak of, um, concern at this news. And as language goes, at least for me, "no serious threat" falls well short of seriously assuaging my worries. After all we do live in a time rife with terrorism and false flag events, so who in their right mind would want to tempt fate. I would have preferred a statement that offered that the lab was no threat at all, none, nada, zip, zilch. After all, given that Ebola, for example, causes its victims to bleed profusely from every orifice, and that's just for starters, I have to wonder what a less than serious threat constitutes.

So why couldn't this lab have found a host, I mean home, somewhere other than in the middle of New England's biggest city? I realize that there is a wonderful medical infrastructure here in Boston, but aren't there other considerations, like public safety? Oh, that's right, I forgot, "no serious threat." My wife supposes some zealous administrator, looking to feather his cap, is responsible for luring the government facility here. If so, good for him, and God Forbid it isn't for the rest of us.

Building Bridges... To Nowhere!

An association of Civil Engineers recently rated the United State's infrastructure, which includes bridges such as the one that recently collapsed in Minneapolis, a ‘D’, and estimated the total upgrade cost to be $1.6 trillion. That amount is roughly what has been blown in the Iraq & Afghan Wars." So, offers Jim Willie, the shrewd proprietor of the newsletter, The Golden Jackass.

If one data point could possibly sum up the absolute criminal madness, the lunatic idiocy of our Executive's priorities, and much of the Legislature's as well, that might be it. Putting aside the Afghanistan escapade for a moment, the invasion of Iraq, under baldly false pretenses, has, in effect, left the entire U.S. motoring public, and all commercial roadway and railway traffic, vulnerable to the travails of roads, railways, bridges and tunnels that are literally disintegrating under our collective wheels. This stark reality certainly gives whole new meaning to the, by now, bitterly ironic Bushism, "Mission Accomplished." If Peak Oil doesn't curtail happy motoring in the not too distant future, collapsing highways and such just might. And don't expect the government to come to your favorite local crumbling bridge's aid anytime soon, After all, what with the government's bailout of the big banks, broker dealers and such all but a certainty, there won't be much dosh around to repair anyone's falling to pieces freeway, that is assuming they could be bothered to anyway.

It's Worse Than It Looks!

Though they aren't at present, various financial markets ought to be the center of our culture's attention right about now. The reason is simple. The bond and stock market's behaviour is forecasting recession or worse. And for the (insert number here) time, the Fed will be expected to come to Wall Street's rescue. In fact, if you are the somewhat lunatic, Jim Cramer, the Fed should have come to the rescue yesterday, because "they have no idea how bad it is out there." I suspect the Fed does, Jim, but how would it look if the Fed openly took their cues from you?

Perhaps there will be a Fed induced rally of some sort starting soon. Most market crashes (and make no mistake, we are in the early stages of an equity collapse) don't just go straight down. Then again, I posit that things are indeed different this time as the vaunted Fed does not have the power or clout it once had. More importantly, neither does our economy, not by a damn sight, and that makes a rescue of the sort that have become commonplace over the decades far more difficult to achieve. For what it is worth, rest assured that the monetary authorities will try to bail out the suffering haves. In the meantime, I will not, like some, be screaming for the Fed to do something to save the jobs of those who profited hugely on that which is now falling apart like a cheap suit in the rain.