Its called "stream of consciousness." This article is, in essence, the ramblings of a guy named Shawn who is 31 years old. Give this guy some credit, unlike a lot of people from his neighborhood and upbringing, some light is starting to dawn on him. He's trying. Sadly, there are an awful lot of people who have grown up under much better circumstances who are much better spoken, yet who are just as emotionally lost as Shawn; who are just as dysfunctional because of deep emotional wounds.

In Shawn's case, he's clearly had an early experience in which he gave his heart completely to someone or something only to be absolutely rejected (by a cruel person or even by the death of a person or pet he loved). This could have been the guy who molested him, although from his description it seems more likely that it was one of women in his young life, likely his chemically-abusive mother.

Especially since he was a guy growing up in a redneck area and hence had no way to express or receive emotional support for the grief this rejection caused, his ability to feel love, to give his heart, to love anything or anyone was shut down by an ancient defense mechanism buried within us that tries to prevent us from repeating experiences from which we receiving serious physical or emotional damage.

Behind every guy who can't commit, who seems just fine, but then freezes up and walks away when someone else asks "do you love me," is a similarly wounded soul. Without help to find and heal his earlier wounding experience, Shawn will continue to feel lost and wonder why he can't fall in love.

Meanwhile, there's little doubt there are a wide variety of other pieces of his personality missing as well as the result of growing up in such a cruel, unpredictable and unsupportive environment. By the way, a lot of Shawn's use chemicals to open the cages on the pieces locked up inside themselves, allowing them to cry in their beer, so to speak. For research on how this works, just listen to some country music.

Let's take these things one at a time... All the whining and crying about what will happen if... About Harry Reid folding... About the national debt going through the stratosphere and off into space (from people who never uttered a peep when Buscho was cutting taxes and running up the Iraq war debt)... We might actually prevent the country from descending into a total depression. I take that as hopeful.

I'll be happy to deal with the rest as it comes along.

If you find yourself among those who desperately want to play Eeyor, go ahead, and see disaster around every corner and lurking behind every fluffy, fair weather cloud. All of us Christopher Robins are used to it by now. We'll put you back in the toy box and bring you out to play with again tomorrow and never, never, try to tell you to look on the bright side, since we know it's just not in your nature any more than it's in Pooh's nature to stop trying to find ways to get more honey.

Next to the definition of the word "hypocrisy," should have a picture of a member of the national Republican party in America. We all know it. We've been watching it for years. Why not make it official. The only people buying this garbage are the deadender Rubes still listening to Rubaugh and the weasels still watching weasel news.

But, since it didn't have anything to do with abortion or homosexuality, I suspect many of the religious conservatives didn't, since they have a tendency to ignore most of the Bible in favor of lifting up a few verses with which they can bash other people. Generally they find the teachings of Jesus far too difficult, as well.

Speaking of Jesus and American politics, especially our Republican friends (although the Democrats are also challenged), let's try this on for size:

"No slave can have two masters; for a slave will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND WEALTH." [Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13]

Then of course there's that whole last judgment scene in Matthew where Jesus says clearly that the way we get into heaven is not by singing endless praise songs, or getting a personal, emotional high worshiping in large churches with huge crowds, but by taking care of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, those in prison... [Matthew 25:31-46]

Indeed, if we do not take care of those in need, no matter how much or how often we praised God or named the name of Jesus to others, we still go to "eternal punishment."

Lets see our politicians and the population of our nation try those on for size. We would be wise to do so because, as we are lately observing, nations, including our own rise and fall not based on how high the rich are able to rise but based on how they take care of the last and the least.

Will we ever learn that, every time we change the legal structures undergirding our economy to protect the rich and enable them to suck up the wealth created by the actual work being done by the poor and middle class, we eventually come crashing back down? We've ridden this ride enough times in our history, you'd think we would have figured this out by now!