Americans are an upbeat and optimistic people. We smile and greet each other on the street and perpetuate the image of a gregarious and positive nation to the world. We all want to embrace this positive spirit-cheerfulness and good humor-especially in times like these: with unemployment on the rise, and foreclosures forcing thousands of Americans out of their homes, the need and desire for good news is undeniable. But America has embarked on an unwholesome love affair with Positive Thinking-meaning the belief system that refuses to consider the problems at hand; a conviction that by merely thinking positively and having a positive attitude, you can get the things that you want; that by focusing on the good, the bad will cease to exist. Avoiding reality, as recent history has shown, can be disastrous.
In a brilliant and savagely funny attack on the perils of Positive Thinking, BRIGHT-SIDED: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America,... Ehrenreich reveals how this insidious school of thought has infiltrated every part of American culture and exposes the downside of always and only seeing the bright side....
Here are some of the myths Ehrenreich exposes and truths she reveals:
* the pseudoscientific link between positive attitude and healing
* how the relentless push for patients to maintain a positive attitude is often psychologically devastating
* the shocking links between prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and Creflo Dollar and the mortgage crisis
* the refusal of the business community to consider negative outcomes-like mortgage defaults-and the groundless optimism of CEOs have replaced risk analysis as the basis for company decisions
On the flip: Blues Power (the power of negative thinking), The Many Sons of NY-23, Big Pharma's Flu Flim-Flam & the October Surprise Bipartisan Coverup remembered.
Let us start with Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), who took to the House floor last week to say that the Republican health care reform plan is to have people "die quickly." It was an over-the-top, outrageous comment that has no place in civil discourse.
That alone is reason enough for Grayson to feel proud. Had Ornstein been around in the 1830s he'd have been after John Quincy Adams 24/7 for refusing to shut up about slavery already.
Don't believe me? Well, he goes on to say:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at least did not support or endorse the Grayson remark and called on all miscreants to apologize. She is right - but we deserve more from the Speaker than a response that if one apologizes, all should apologize. It is up to the Speaker to rise above the partisan fray and put her own colleague on the spot, even if it is unfair to let the others off the hook. The only way to stop this nonsense is to create some level of shame for those who perpetrate it.
Speaking of slavery, I'm agin it. But seeing as how there are still tens of millions of slaves in the world today, couldn't we just have Ornstein swap places with a 12-year old child prostitute in Haiti? I'm sure there's not a one of them that would write such idiotic tripe as this. Did Ornstein ever write a column about how Newt Gingrich needed to put himself on the spot and "create some level of shame" for himself? Cause Newt said worse stuff than this about Democrats just about every time he farted back in the 90s.
The only way to beat a bully is to beat a bully. Grayson gets this, and the more clueless Versailles potentates who shake their fists at him, the clearer it is just how very, very long overdue his blunt attack on the bully boys is.
How'd I miss this gem? On Spet 24, Salon reported on "Why loan modification scams are booming" (Because Obama just couldn't stand to help ordinary American's that's why, fool!):
Bogus mortgage "rescues" are a growing business -- and state and federal authorities can't do much about it By Paul Kiel
During the go-go years of the real estate bubble, shady mortgage brokers thrived, thanks to the sluggish response of regulators and law enforcement agencies. Amid the ruins of the crash, there's a new boom attracting unscrupulous mortgage professionals: "Foreclosure rescue" companies promising -- in exchange for a large upfront fee -- to persuade lenders to modify desperate homeowners' mortgages. And authorities are again finding themselves ill-equipped to deal with the deluge.
In a giant game of whack-a-mole, law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country have filed suit against 150 such companies, but they continue to proliferate, and the number of consumer complaints continues to rise.
"This is a very big scam," says California Attorney General Jerry Brown. "They're all over the place, and as soon as you get one, they migrate to somewhere else."
.... The Illinois attorney general says that her office has yet to see any such company operate within the boundaries of state law.
Deception seems to be at the heart of the business model.
Gosh, no one could have foreseen that if the Federal government sat on its fat ass and did nothing to help millions of homeowners on the verge of going bankrupt, all the unemployed mortgage hustlers would come back for another bite!
"Deception seems to be at the heart of the business model." Of the entire FIRE sector, that is. Perhaps, even, the entire US private sector at this point.
Who else but the editor of the magazine should be responsible for its content? Who was Sullivan fighting with, as the editor of the magazine, that forced him to label the piece as fact instead of as one woman's opinion? Martin Peretz? Betsy McCaughey herself, as he seems to intimate here? Who was in charge?
(See Joe Conason as well.) But Sullivan's not just a bad editor and a worse excuse-maker. He's Andrew-"Fifth Column" Sullivan, the guy who called folks like me triators--"folks like me" meaning folks who could see Afghanistan turning out just like it has, for the simple reason that that's exactly the way it turned out the first time around:
The middle part of the country--the great red zone that voted for Bush--is clearly ready for war. The decadent Left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead--and may well mount what amounts to a fifth column.
Sure, Sullivan's a conservative who's to the left of Obama on some issues. That's not praise for Sullivan. It's shame for Obama.
Maybe Jon Stewart's Cable News Right Wing Crazy Contest, "So You Think You Can Douche!" should be picked up for the fall lineup by some savvy network exec.
Maybe it's time the Punditalkcrazy realized that Sarah Palin is the most polarizing politician in the Republican Party, not just America. Rasmussen reports:
Although, Newt is more evenly balanced. (Now there's five words in the English language I bet you never thought you'd see in the same sentence with a negation!)
Maybe Obama meant "fierce advocate against gay rights", though, in all fairness, maybe he didn't mean anything at all.
Maybe Charles Franklin (cofounder of Pollster.com) is smarter than the entire Punditalkcrazy put together. Okay, not saying much. But his take on Palin is all the proof you need....
Barbara Ehrenreich has a new book out, 
