Exactly two years ago on this date
Dredd Blog did
a post about thumb sucking, pointing out its universality.
The current thumb sucking going on by the T-Baggers in D.C., combined with the throwing of a temper tantrum and a fit to get attention, demanding their own way at the expense of everyone else, fits into the stereotypical view of thumb suckers we talked about two years ago.
Thumb suckers, like
the cave men, have a better self image of themselves than that stereotypical view.
We will discuss the matter further, following the review of the 7/29/09 post:
Most any social practice can be conceived of as an aberration or as an uplifting necessity.
Whether "it" is a necessity or an aberration can depend on the time of day, time of month, time of year, election cycle proximity to November 4th, and the like. That is,
when "it" is being done can be a big factor for some reason.
All of that, of course, also heavily depends on
who is doing the conceiving as to whether "it" is an aberration or an uplifting necessity.
So for an attention getter, I use
thumb sucking adults as the "it" to get everyone's attention.
I use the subject matter
thumb sucking adults not as
a bad example or a good example, but just as
a simple example.
This phenomenon has religious and cultural manifestations which is not unique to United States culture:
Does thumb-sucking affect the fast?
Assalamu alaikum
I have an awkward problem, that is I still suck my thumb since I was a child!, it can be quite extreme when I am not feeling too well. I am in doubt if this is Haram at all, and does it nullify my fast? I heard a friend say anything that enters the body nullifies the fast. Plse answer my question a.s.a.p. because Ramadan is beginning soon and it is extremely embarassing for me to talk to anyone about it, not even my husband!.
Jazakum allah alf Khair
----------------------------------------------------------
Praise be to Allaah.
Wa ‘alaykum al-salaam wa rahmat-Allaahi wa barakaatuhu.
You have to try hard to give up this habit, and take your thumb out of your mouth every time you realize that you are sucking your thumb. Whatever happens because of forgetfulness will not affect your fast. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allaah has forgiven my ummah for what they do by mistake or out of forgetfulness, and what they are forced to do.”
(
Islam Q&A). Thumb sucking
begins while a human is yet embryonic and still within the mother's womb.
It is a personal comfort thing, attached to an individual's own psyche, and to the extent understood, is normal up to a point, but no longer normal beyond that point (so say the gods of normality anyway), and as usual, "that point" varies like political doctrine and taste for beer.
The robe wearers (psyche-doctors of various and sundry sorts) disagree and agree among themselves, as they do on most any topic, as to why thumb sucking arises and why it is perpetuated in some adults but not others.
My take on it is
different strokes for different folks, but that goes nowhere fast.
Some of my observations detail how
the bullies hurt people to get more pleasure than they can get from thumb sucking, and how they quit thumb sucking as soon as their bully business prospers sufficiently, and they then have a sufficient clientèle on the playground whom they can terrorize.
Lets note that they would have done far better as thumb sucking adults.
Others on the playground take up finger painting, sports, the swings, daydreaming, or hanging out with other kids they like, and leave the thumb sucking behind
that way.
Whatever.
Our social structures do not deal with any of this effectively, because our cultures look at what the kids put down on paper during tests as the be all, leaving both aberrant and normal playground dynamics to parents and prison wardens to sort out later.
My concern is that
this is no way to develop cosmic adults, no way to preserve the human species into our cosmic future, and just plain "no way".
Of course we all say it takes a village to raise a child, and that is true, but our failing as a species is our concept of the size and shape of "a village".
Clearly,
a cosmic village is
globe shaped my friends.
That was then, but then again the current debt crisis was created by the policies of
Bush II:
With President Obama and Republican leaders calling for cutting the budget by trillions over the next 10 years, it is worth asking how we got here — from healthy surpluses at the end of the Clinton era, and the promise of future surpluses, to nine straight years of deficits, including the $1.3 trillion shortfall in 2010. The answer is largely the Bush-era tax cuts, war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, and recessions.
Despite what antigovernment conservatives say, non-defense discretionary spending on areas like foreign aid, education and food safety was not a driving factor in creating the deficits. In fact, such spending, accounting for only 15 percent of the budget, has been basically flat as a share of the economy for decades. Cutting it simply will not fill the deficit hole.
(
How the Deficit Got This Big). By lying us into endless wars that were unfunded, giving the legal drug companies the greatest windfalls in their history, and by cutting taxes to those who did not need it,
Bush II plundered the rest of us.
The notorious
Bush II and the bushies ended up taking a budget surplus then turned it into the greatest deficits in our history, a problem we are still struggling with.
Dredd Blog has repeatedly called this the age of criminal insanity because of the behavior of MOMCOM, so lets back it up once again with a quote from an expert:
What doesn't go unnoticed is the fact that some of the character traits exhibited by serial killers or criminals may be observed in many within the political arena. While not exhibiting physical violence [except endless wars for no good reason], many political leaders display varying degrees of anger, feigned outrage and other behaviors. They also lack what most consider a "shame" mechanism. Quite simply, most serial killers and many professional politicians must mimic what they believe, are appropriate responses to situations they face such as sadness, empathy, sympathy, and other human responses to outside stimuli.
(
Serial killers and politicians share traits). Now, as the ones who do the dance of the mass murdering psychopath, as they suck their thumbs in public like a Lilly Tomlin comic character,
they blame the adult older people of the middle class for it, or even stoop lower to blame the poor adults among us.
They are doing this sham transfer of blame so they can plunder us even more.
They seem to think the public is composed of the suckers, even as they suck away.
About two anniversaries ago Dredd Blog posted The Science Police, which many thought was a parody.
