How does the "strict father" model of society work when Strict Dad is, say, a Point-Haired Boss or a Donny "The Mine Unsafety King" Blankenship?

DILBERT     by Scott Adams





by Ken

This weekend I've been wandering around issues of work and the employer-employee relationship, first Friday night, "Let's celebrate that great champion of the American working man, mining mogul Donny "Safety Is for Suckers" Blankenship," about the news that four years after the Upper Branch Mine disaster Donny B has finally been indicted for allowing the mine to be so dangerously unsafe; then last night, "Work sucks (pass it on)," about how work for most of us, you know, sucks. Tonight I want to make a trilogy of it, pulling those previous posts together.

I honestly wonder what goes through the mind of someone like Donny B, known (per Rolling Stone) as the "Dark Lord" of Coal Country, a man who knows perfectly well that the mines he's sending miners into are death traps, when he thinks about the lives that are in his hands. And surely he has to think about it, at least in some fashion, doesn't he? But he can't think of them as human persons who knowingly subject themselves to life-threatening conditions in order to be able to put food on their family's tables, can he? He must have to think of them as some kind of automaton, a unit of inventory, easily replaceable with other readily available units.

I have to conclude from Donny B's history of proudly ignoring his groaning stockpile of safety violations, even under the real-world conditions of exceedingly loose mine-safety oversight, that he's either indifferent to or openly contemptuous the whole notion of mine-safety regulation. Then I wonder whether his views on the subject might change if he spent, say, a month doing regular shifts in one of his mines. Actually, I like better still the suggestion of a commenter on my Friday night post: "The sentence Blankenship SHOULD get would be to spend the rest of his life tearing coal out of the ground in the very conditions he deems suitable for employment."


REMEMBER GEORGE LAKOFF'S "STRICT FATHER MODEL"?

As I've mentioned, I've been playing with my copy of Prof. George Lakoff's All New Don't Think of an Elephant!, and as you probably recall, one of the professor's basic tenets as a cognitive scientist is that we humans don't really hear words and "facts," we take in impressions of language which our brain takes in -- or doesn't -- according to the way they fit into ideas and understandings already etched into our brains. He argues further that that the conservative mindset is attuned to what he calls the "strict father model." I just wanted to review a tiny bit of his description of the "strict father model" that dominates in the brains of conservatives.

In fact, since the original Don't Think of an Elephant! was written, conservative friends of the professor's have clued him in that yes, there is indeed such a thing as the strict-father model, but he hadn't really nailed it. Now he thinks he has, thanks to a terrific tip: Go to the preachings of right-wing psycho-pervert "Dr." James Dobson -- you remember, the founder of Focus on the Family. "Dr." Dobbsy gets the whole schmeer, starting with the strict father's need to apply discipline to wayward kiddies, and he doesn't mean just metaphorical discipline, and including the inseparable link between religion and patriarchal control. (He's not totally slap-happy, though, our "Dr." Dobbsy. He tells us in The New Dare to Discipline, Professor Lakoff tells us, on page 65, "There is no excuse for spanking babies younger than fifteen or eighteen months of age.")

We're not going to get into this tonight, but let me say that the new explanation of the strict-father model seems to me much stronger and clearer. Let me also stress that the professor isn't saying the strict father model is right. In fact, he argues that it's not only demonstrably wrong in important ways but also immoral in important ways. Still, he considers it desperately important that we have some sense of what conservatives are hearing when they hear. Because he wants us to accept that while yes, conservatives do lie, in general what they understand and say isn't a matter of lying, or stupidity, or lack of thought, but what they honestly believe. He thinks if we have any shot at making contact with the less fervently committed holders of this mental model, it is essential that we accord their beliefs this degree of respect, no matter how strongly we may disagree with those beliefs.

So let's listen to listen to just a bit of Professor Lakoff's description of the strict-father model, after he has laid out most of the particulars. Here he is talking about "the conservative view of the moral hierarchy":

As we have seen, the rich and those who can take care of themselves are considered more moral than the poor and those who need help. But moral superiority on a wider scope is central to conservative thought. The idea is that those who are more moral should rule. How do you decide who is more moral? Well, in a well-ordered world (ordered by God), the moral have come out on top. Here is the hierarchy: God above man; man above nature; adults above children; Western culture above non-Western culture; our country above other countries. These are general conservative values. But the hierarchy goes on, and it explains the oppressive views of more radical conservatives: men above women, Christians above non-Christians, whites above nonwhites, straights above gays.

HOLD THAT THOUGHT AS WE GO BACK TO WORK SUCKING

In last night's post, I quoted The Frisky's Megan Reynolds, in the first column in a weekly series devoted to work issues:

Newsflash. Work is terrible. It’s something that we all have to do, but no one particularly wants to do it. It’s a cruel trick in which you have to go to a place and do things that you would never normally do, for a nominal amount of money that is usually too little, and for a select few, just right. Sometimes, you win the life lottery and the thing that you do for 40 hours a week in a nondescript office building somewhere in the city you live in is not a soul-crushing exercise in managing disappointments. Sometimes, you’re lucky enough to really, truly, love what you do. If you are one of these people, I’m very happy for you. Please close this tab and go to that special members-only club that exists for people who have found true career satisfaction. Let me know what it’s like in there.

Which brings us back to today's Dilbert, with Dilbert's rant on the Pointy-Headed Boss, and also to that right-wing strict-father model. What happens when Strict Dad is the Pointy-Haired Boss, or a titan of capitalist morality like Donny "Safety Is for Suckers" Blankenship? Isn't their dominating financial success proof of their dominant morality?

I admit that I'm already a tad skeptical about having to take seriously anyone's beliefs just 'cause it's what the person believes. Isn't this just an expanded version of what I think of as the Costanza Exception as applied to lying -- you recall George's explanation to Jerry Seinfeld, in need of crash tips on lying: "Remember, it's not a lie if you believe it." Start applying this to mental cases through history, and it sounds as if people like, oh, Adolf Hitler and Al Capone get points for sincerely believing whatever sociopathology they had in their heads.

Or maybe I'm wrong about those sweethearts, the right-wing strict-father modelists. After all, once that 18-month moratorium on infant corporal punishment expires and sick fucks vigilant dads like Dr. James Dobson get to start beating the crap out of the kiddies, don't they learn what it means to be moral? (Oh, I think they learn something, all right, but not necessarily what it means to be moral.)

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Will South Carolina Republicans Vote Strategically Tuesday?

Sanford's not even good enough for these two charlatans

Ole Man-on-Dog Santorum was down in South Carolina's first congressional district all last week, campaigning for little known former Charleston city councilman Curtis Bostic, who came in a distant second (with 13%) in the Republican primary and will face off against former Governor/former Congressman Mark Sanford (37%). More accurately, of course, is that Santorum was down in South Carolina campaigning against Sanford. I doubt Santorum gives a damn that Sanford was caught cheating on his wife-- in a spectacular, scandalous way-- as much as he's worrying that if Sanford wins the runoff, Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch could wind up winning a very red district in the May 7 general election. Keep in mind that although Obama only managed to get 39% of the vote in November and that then-Congressman Tim Scott (R) was reelected with 62%, it was just a few years ago that Democrat Linda Ketner almost beat long-time incumbent Henry Brown (R) 177,540 (52%)- 163,724 (48%).

Normal voters in a general election might shy away from a character like Sanford-- who isn't just an adulterer but was widely considered one of the most corrupt governors in South Carolina's history-- but the GOP primary voters... they thrive on this kind of thing. This is the Party of The Culture of Personal Crisis. Failing ethically and morally is a positive if you mock Jesus loudly enough in your disingenuous public repentance-- and the more lurid the failing, the more these evangelical suckers are likely to be taken in. That's why Sanford may well win the runoff Tuesday and lose then lose the actually election when independents and Democrats will also be voting.

In their debate Thursday, Bostic said Sanford's infidelity has made him a "compromised candidate" who could lose the seat to Colbert's sister. "We will lose this and lose it because of this issue of trust," he predicted... Democrats are excited at the possibility of taking this seat back."

Desperate to hit back, Sanford accused Bostic of missing votes on the city council, but the accusations fell flat since many in the city remember that Bostic missed the votes while he was at his wife's bedside while she was suffering with cancer-- a horrible contrast for Sanford, who missed his work as governor when he was off tangoing in Buenos Aires with his mistress. One of Sanford's most vicious mouthpieces in this race, FitsNews, has also accused ex-marine Bostic of supporting human trafficking or some kind of crazy right-wing nonsense they usually reserve for Democrats.

The redemption meme may have been at least partially neutered Friday when Bostic was endorsed by James Dobson, who plays the role of judging whether or not politicians' apologies have been accepted by Heaven. Like Ann Coulter, he endorsed Bostic, a very big deal among right-wing primary voters in the fevered Confederate swamplands. Coulter, who refers to Mark Sanford as "the Todd Akin of South Carolina:"

You would think Akin would stand in history to teach Republicans to stop giving away winnable seats by running ridiculous candidates. Alas, no.

What's next? A Republican candidate whose campaign consists exclusively of demanding vaginal probes and discussing different types of rape?

If, in some horrible twist of fate that's been stalking Republicans, Sanford wins the runoff, he will lose the general election. Worse, he might win, making Republicans look like utter hypocrites on family values.

In any event, so many resources will have to be diverted to save an easy Republican House seat that even if Sanford wins, some other Republican candidate will lose a close election after having to beg for money.

And the payoff is: Yay! We win one of the most Republican districts in the country with a high-risk candidate!

The Republican Party owes Sanford nothing. He had a chance and he blew it. National Review wasted five years of cover stories on how awesome he was, but he never accomplished anything of substance.

He showed off about getting his hair done at Super Cuts, sleeping in his office in Congress and not turning on the air conditioning in the governor's mansion. He wore the same pair of shoes for 30 years-- they've been re-soled 70 times!

Big deal. He saved taxpayers $300 in petty cash, but he didn't implement any lasting reforms. The most memorable thing Sanford did in his entire life was to make himself a laughingstock as governor by running off with his Argentine honey and then going on TV to announce-- in front of his wife and children-- "I've fallen in love!"

Republicans need to be like Luca Brasi and tell Sanford: "You screwed up; we didn't do anything to you. Have fun, I'm sure Maria's fantastic, but you can't run for Congress."

Dobson described Bostic as "steadfast in supporting traditional marriage and defending the unborn child, matters of preeminent importance at this crucial hour in our nation's history." Bostic also nabbed the endorsement of an extremist Republican Women's anti-Choice group, Concerned Women for America PAC. "The decision," they exulted, "that he and his wife, Jenny, made to embrace their faith, disregard medical advice, and have their fifth child clearly shows that Curtis honors his commitments and stands in strong contrast to Mark Sanford's abandonment of his core principles."

UPDATE: Does Anyone Care What Henry Brown Says?

Bostic has been promising a game changing endorsement. Apparently it was former Congressman Henry Brown. The district was different when Brown was congressman and he was nearly defeated by a Democrat and then retired rather than face a primary from the Tea Party. “I’ve known Curtis and his family for many years, and know him to be a man of integrity and principle. He is the best choice for District 1,” said Brown.

You May Be A Far Right Fanatic If... Your Personal Life Is A Hopeless Hot Mess

Just a little alert here: we're very supportive and very proud of the elected officials from the LGBT community who come out publicly. Earlier today we lionized the work of Riverside, CA freshman Mark Takano, an openly gay man and we're extremely excited about helping Massachusetts progressive Carl Sciortino, also openly gay, in his run for the House seat opening up when Ed Markey moves on to the U.S. Senate. But that isn't what this post is about. This one is about the people who, for one reason or another, find their personal lives a disaster and wind up in the arms of the religious charlatans who are sent among us by Satan to pervert Jesus' message of live and salvation. I'm talking about the greed-obsessed false prophets of the right-- from James Dobson, Tony Perkins, James Robison, Franklin Graham, and Pat Robertson, to sticky-palmed crackpots like Jerry Boykin, Mike Huckabee, Don Wildmon, and Ralph Reed.

These people have built communities based on collapsing, tragic lives of emotionally strapped individuals being led down depraved paths, communities where the fear of pornography is real because the addiction to pornography is overwhelming, communities where all the preaching about mortal turpitude makes sense since they are the very people whose lives are centered around the moral turpitude they chastise the normal world for. Let me share a little with you from Max Blumenthal's book on the subject, Republican Gomorrah. We'll begin with a look at the Christian Right's obsession with "Purity Balls."

[More] often than not, girls who drop flowers at purity balls are deflowered soon after. Over half of them wind up having sex before marriage, and with a man other than their future husband, according to sociologists Peter Bearman and Hannah Bruckner. Bearman and Bruckner also note that communities with the highest populations of purity ball attendees also have some of the country's highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In Lubbock, Texas where abstinence-only education has been mandated since 1995, the rate of gonorrhea has risen to double the national rate, while teen pregnancy has spiked to the highest level in the state. A congressionally funded study of adolescent behavior, Add Health-- the most comprehensive of its kind in history-- revealed another dirty secret of the Christian right: White evangelical women lose their virginity on average at age sixteen, younger than any group besides black Protestants.

We'll come right back to Blumenthal but I want to take a moment out to point out a report from the CDC this week. For the first time, researchers have been "able to map the incidence of HIV around the country, and have discovered a disturbing trend. Among the states with the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses were nearly all of the states in the deep south, many of which don’t require school districts to teach 'medically accurate' sex education, and some of which don’t require any sex education at all." Last week, the NY Times was going down a similar reporting path in regard to a big self-inflicted wound in Texas.

Right-wing Republican state legislators gutted women's health services in Texas and now it's coming back to cost the state's taxpayers a fortune. They're scrambling to undo their ideologically-driven war against women insanity.

Using taxpayer dollars to finance family-planning services has become politically thorny in Texas, largely because of Republican lawmakers’ assertions that the women’s health clinics providing that care are affiliated with abortion providers. In the fiscal crunch of 2011, the Legislature cut the state’s family-planning budget by two-thirds, with some lawmakers claiming that they were defunding the “abortion industry.” Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, found that more than 50 family-planning clinics had closed statewide as a result.

Now, amid estimates that the cuts could lead to 24,000 additional 2014-15 births at a cost to taxpayers of $273 million,  lawmakers are seeking a way to restore financing without ruffling feathers.

Back to Blumenthal and Gomorrah, who we pick up while he explains how a distraught and fully demented woman, Judith Reisman, who used to write songs for Captain Kangaroo, persuaded the anti-Jesus wing of the "Christian" Right to make the LBGT community its top target.

At a May 1994 conference sponsored by Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, described by the Washington Times as "top secret," Reisman introduced her theory of a proselytizing homosexual movement. "I would suggest to you," she told the conference, "that while the homosexual population might right now be 1 to 2 percent, hold your breath, people, because the recruitment is loud; it is clear; it is everywhere. You'll be seeing, I would say, 20 percent or more, probably 30 percent, or even more than that, of the young population will be moving into homosexual activity." By the meeting's conclusion, representatives of the forty organizations in attendance agreed to move anti-gay politicking to the forefront of the movement's long-term agenda.

...Reisman's lobbying piqued the interest of Texas Republican Representative Steve Stockman, a former drifter with well-established ties to anti-government militia leaders. In 1995, Stockman introduced HR 2749, "The Child Protection and Ethics in Education Act," a bill Reisman helped author that proposed "to determine if Alfred Kinsey's [books] Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and/or Sexual Behavior in the Human Female are the result of any fraud or criminal wrongdoing.

...In November 2004, Reisman spent a week on Capitol Hill at the invitation of Republican Senator Sam Brownback... [and] testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space on "The Science Behind Pornography Addiction," declaring that "Pornography triggers myriad kinds of internal, natural drugs that mimic the 'high' from a street drug. Addiction to pornography is addiction to what I dub 'erotoxins-- mind-altering drugs produced by the viewer's own brain."

This is the world evangelicals inhabit, the world in which they are corralled by those unscrupulous fake prophets can round 'em up, rope 'em, brand 'em and shear them of their worldly possessions, making these Satanic preachers multimillionaires and leaving their victims in eternal agony and filled with self-hatred and loathing they're taught to turn outward. As Blumenthal points out, Jim Dobson is positively obsessed with pornography; it's almost as important in his ministry as the sadomasochism on which he thrives and he explains that "a wealth of data... suggests that porn has been a particularly pernicious problem within the evangelical community... An evangelical anti-porn group, found in a 2007 survey that 50 percent of evangelical men and 20 percent of evangelical women are addicted to pornography' 37 percent of evangelical pastors who responded to a 2001 survey by Christianity Today magazine called porn addiction a "current struggle." This is the wretched state of mind these poor people are taught to project onto society in general and then respond by voting for crazy right-wing anti-Science, anti-government crackpots, which, in effect, is today's Republican Party.

Nature Of Addiction And Republican Party Politics

The music business has had a very long and storied history in terms of drug use-- and not just among artists. But by the end of the '80s, the drug lifestyle among music executives was being frowned on. I worked at a very humane company and addicts were given so many opportunities to recover and rehabilitate that it took years for anyone to actually get fired. I remember two on my team who were still using massive amounts of drugs long after everyone around them had cut it out-- or had at least cut back to mere recreational weekend use. One guy's drug abuse impaired his ability to function effectively and releases and even artists' careers were ruined because of his inability to do his (key) job. He was eventually fired-- although not before endless interventions. The other guy actually did great work on coke; it was like high octane fuel for him and his department functioned flawlessly. Every now and then-- though not often-- he'd end up at the bottom of a dark hole... and that was bad. He too was given an ultimatum: straighten up or look for a new job. So he kicked his drug use-- completely.

I was so proud of him. And he continued doing an amazing job and his department continued outperforming in terms of profitability. And then one day it all collapsed. He had traded in one addiction-- drugs-- for another. And the other caught up with him with devastating consequences for everyone around him. And no one suffered more than he did, of course... his career and his personal life shattered and ruined. I thought about both these guys I used to work with last night when I was reading the Tom DeLay chapters in Max Blumenthal's book, Republican Gomorrah.

DeLay's grimy political career had two overarching premises: on the one hand a rebel's crusade against regulations and on the other, a raw, naked lust for unprecedented authoritarian power. DeLay's father was an alcoholic who beat young Tom and his two brothers mercilessly when he was bingeing, leaving them "with physical and psychic scars." Like most right-wing politicians who are the product of that kind of abusive upbringing, he fell right into the same patterns himself, getting expelled from school and earning himself the nickname "Hot Tub Tommy for his bawdy, drunken behavior and his disrespect for women. He was easy prey for a charlatan snake oil salesman like Jim Dobson, whose poison is proselytized on Capitol Hill by Virginia reactionary and religionist kook Frank Wolf.

But DeLay's born-again experience had only transformed his alcoholism into another addiction. "The convert maintains the same addictive thinking as before," University of Kansas professor of religious studies Robert Minor wrote of alcoholics who trade liquor for evangelical religion. "There's a similar level of intensity in their dependence religion as [in] their dependence upon the previous addiction. And the substitution will remain successful as the religion continues to produce a more fulfilling high than the substance or process they abandoned."

With his conversion, DeLay gained loyalty of the evangelical grassroots. Writing in 2001, when DeLay's influence was at its zenith, Peter Perl, observed that "DeLay's faith has solidified his political base and fundraising with the Christian Coalition and other religious and socially conservative groups. They love him, because DeLay's America would stop gun control, outlaw abortion, limit the rights of homosexuals, curb contraception, end the constitutional separation of church and state, and adopt the Ten Commandments as guiding principles for public schools."

Instead, it led to one of the ugliest political scandals in contemporary politics with DeLay forced to resign from Congress and eventually sentenced to prison for a wide range of corruption. The way he and his sleazy cadre of allies played the religious right reinforced the stereotype that "evangelicals are easily manipulated and that evangelical leaders are using moral issues to line their own pockets." Some of the fake religionists DeLay had in his pocket-- particularly Ralph Reed, who was on the cover of Time ("The Right Hand of God"), like Marco Rubio was last week ("The Republican Savior")-- were disgraced and shunned by the movement. Reed went from being the Savior to losing a Republican primary in Georgia for Lt. Governor by 12 points and then having his ex-lover, Rafael "Ralph" Gonzalez murdered in a love triangle by Jason Drake, a staffer-- and lover-- of Patrick McHenry. Will Rubio fall as hard and fast? Probably. Here's something to ponder about Reed and his circle from a 2011 article in Salon, 4 years after my post (linked above at "lover"):

Ralph Gonzalez had served as the executive director of the Georgia Republican Party at a time when Ralph Reed was that Chair of that organization as well as the executive director of the Christian Coalition. In his role as executive director, Gonzalez helped orchestrate the smear campaign against Vietnam Veteran Max Cleland that contributed to his defeat at the hands of Saxby Chambliss. Gonzales worked as campaign chair for Tom Feeney, Jeb Bush’s running mate in his first, unsuccessful, run for Florida’s governorship, when Feeney was running for Speaker of the Florida House. Feeney was later accused of ordering a prototype of a system to hack electronic votes while working for a Chinese company whose Quality Control Manager, Hai Lin Nee, was let off with a suspiciously soft slap on the wrist for selling protected electronic components of a radio-frequency guidance system to the People’s Republic of China, a scandal connected to the purported suicide of an investigator linked to that case. Gonzalez, who reportedly did not hide his homosexuality from those who knew him, was also president of the Strategum Group, a political consulting firm that was paid $3,144.06 by the Alabama Republican Legislative Committee to produce a anti-gay pamphlet that depicted two men sitting on a porch swing holding hands with the caption, “God Created Adam and Eve; Not Adam and Steve.”

David Abrami kept a lower profile. An attorney, Mr. Abrami was described as a “long-term” friend of Gonzales’s. The two lived together and vacationed together, once taking a trip to Amsterdam, although Abrami was reported to have a girlfriend. Abrami was a former business partner of convicted criminal and Fox Radio host, Doug Guetzloe. Guetzloe also acted as attorney for Tom Feeney. Abrami did have one additional moment of infamy in 1992 when as the 22-year-old Vice President of the Central Florida Young Republican Club he garnered attention from the Secret service after holding a fundraiser at the University of Central Florida where participants were charged two-dollars to fire a shotgun at enlarged photographs of President Bill Clinton in what he dubbed a “Turkey Shoot.”

Patrick McHenry started his political career as a protégé of Karl Rove as the National Coalition Director for George W. Bush’s 2000 Presidential campaign and later briefly worked for Secretary of Labor Elaine Chou, wife of house minority whip Mitch McConnell. It is reported that Jason Drake worked as a campaign volunteer for Patrick McHenry while Drake was stationed in North Carolina. After initial denials, McHenry’s staff confirmed that they knew Drake though they would not comment of the nature of McHenry’s relationship with the man though it has been reported that it was both, “intimate and business/political.”

...The murders of Gonzalez and Abrami were first believed to be “a lover’s quarrel,” as reported by police at the scene. However, that term was later scrubbed from news reports and in a final disposition of the case police refused to release a timeline of events or speculate on a motive in the case.

“What prompted him to go in and commit that crime remains undetermined and may never be known,” stated a complacent Joe Picanzo, a Commander with the Orange County Sheriff’s department, “We have so many different and conflicting statements from people.”

At the time of the murders rumors swirled that there was a link to that crime and another murder in Virginia involving homosexual pornography and a male escort service employing ex-marines. Those rumors were never substantiated though with Karl Rove in the mix images of Jeff Gannon and his extraordinary, and still unexplained, access to the White House leap to mind.

“All three associated socially and professionally to some degree,” confirmed Officer Picanzo back in 2007, as he picked up a broom to sweep all of this back into the closet.

What's in Rubio's closet? Plenty.

The Pain Party (Part II)

Yesterday at this time we promised a Part II, although this part isn't going to be about the GOP plan for Sequestration. This is just about the Party of Pain. How did the GOP, and conservatives in general, get to the point where their core belief is, basically, sadomasochism? Max Blumenthal covered it better than anyone in his classic study on what makes the GOP tick, Republican Gomorrah. For anyone confused as to why the Party is offering up a platform of pain-- cutting jobs, a healthcare plan that insists you go die, reduced wages, reduced benefits, an end to Social Security and Medicare, an end to public infrastructure projects-- you have to get a glimpse into the mind of the kind of people who self-identify as Republicans and then run for office under the GOP banner.

We don't need to-- but we will-- go right to Louisiana Senator David Vitter, reelected by evangelicals with 57% of the vote, immediately after being exposed for-- and then offering teary contrition-- decades of hiring prostitutes who he paid to dress him in diapers and spank him while he soiled himself. Sexy? Only to evangelicals, America's self-loathing, self-righteous pornography-addicted special interest. Blumenthal cites a 2007 survey that shows that "50 percent of evangelical men and 20 percent of evangelical women are addicted to pornography; 37 percent of evangelical pastors who responded to a 2001 survey in Christianity Today magazine called porn addiction a "current struggle." Now meet the granddaddy of the modern Republican mind, James Dobson, a deranged child psychologist, masquerading as a prophet of a right-wing anti-Jesus God-figure. Viewing obscene material, he warns his millions of followers, inevitably leads to "sex between women and bulls, stallions or boars." So that's why Michele Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Lynn Westmoreland, Virginia Foxx and Diane Black always look so uptight and on edge!

Dobson's first claim to fame was his 1970 sick and twisted child rearing book, Dare to Discipline, which he hoped would make him a fortune while displacing the 1946 more sober "hippie book" that Dr. Benjamin Spock wrote, Baby and Child Care, and which does not urge parents to beat their children. Dobson's manual, which has earned him the sobriquet, "the King of Pain," reads "like a manifesto for domestic violence." (He even added some advice about using corporal punishment on unruly household pets: "threaten him with destruction," he wrote. "Nothing else works." Dobson was upset-- even unhinged-- by the turmoil of protest he saw on American campuses and streets as students protested against racism, war and patriarchy, targets that were ideals for Dobson and other right-wing white unreconstructed Southerners. "His advocacy of corporal punishment," wrote Blumenthal, "was carefully intended to channel the violent backlash in the streets [i.e.- Nixon thugs beating up protesters] into a coherent grassroots movement with himself as its guru.

Dobson's teachings resonated on a profound level with the backlashers. By 1976, Dare to Discipline had been reprinted eighteen times and sold over a million copies. His success propelled him into the rapidly expanding evangelical broadcast industry. Dobson's new radio show and ministry, Focus on the Family, became immediately popular as well, Now, the followers eager to implement his harsh methods had grown into a belt-wielding army of millions. Corporal punishment was back with a vengeance.

...In his incisive book, Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse, [Professor Philip] Greven analyzed Dare to Discipline in detail, concluding that Dobson's violent child-rearing methods served an underlying purpose, producing droves of activists embarked on an authoritarian mission.

"The persistent 'conservatism' of American politics and society is rooted in large part in the physical violence done to children," Greven wrote. "The roots of this persistent tilt towards hierarchy-- so evident in Germany earlier in this century and in the radical right in America today-- are always traceable to aggression against children's wills and bodies, to the pain and the suffering they experience, long before they, as adults, confront the complex issues of the polity, the society, and the world."

But the infliction of pain on young children, social deviants, and other weaker beings is only one half of a binary solution Dobson has prescribed to his followers for curing America's social ills. As Dobson has consistently made clear to his flock, they must first purify their own souls of sin before striking out, literally, to purify the land.

Dobson's self-purification process, adapted from his father's Nazarene faith, compels his followers to confess their darkest transgressions before pleading for forgiveness. Finally, to attain what Dobson and others in the evangelical culture call "holiness," a permanent state of spiritual perfection, followers must submit their individual wills to the order of a higher power-- either God, or men of God such as Dobson. Every sinner who submits must be convinced that, as Dobson has insisted, "Pain is a marvelous purifier."

Dobson's emphasis on pain, simultaneously inflicted on weaker beings and the self, reflects the sadomasochism at the core of his philosophy, As Greven noted, books such as Dare to Discipline that urge parents to beat their children are hardly distinguishable from S&M manuals such as Larry Townsend's The Leatherman's Handbook," which advise men on erotic techniques of "discipline" and "punishment." The principle distinction between the two is that the methods Townsend advocates are applied to adults who have chosen to participate, whereas Dobson's techniques are wielded against the wills of small children.

"Wherever children suffer from painful physical punishments and humiliating submission [as Dobson claims he did when he was growing up in Mississippi] to more powerful authorities, sadomasochism will be present," Greven wrote. "Sadomasochism is thus one of the most enduring consequences of coercive discipline in childhood."

Erich Fromm, in his book Escape From Freedom, insisted that sadomasochism was more than a sexual kink. It was, he claimed, a defining characteristic of the authoritarian personality, finding its most dangerous expression in the political sphere. "These essence of the authoritarian character," Fromm wrote, "has been described as the simultaneous presence of sadistic and masochistic drives. Sadism was understood as aiming at unrestricted power over another person more or less mixed with destructiveness; masochism an aiming at dissolving oneself in an overwhelmingly strong power and participating in its strength and glory."

Dare to Disclipline and several of Dobson's subsequent tracts are little more than how-to guides for the cultivation of sadomasochists. As Dobson's own personal history shows, many of those raised on a steady diet of corporal punishment demonstrate a tendency later in life to reenact the painful experiences familiar to their childhoods, through either radical-right political activism or cruel impersonal behavior, or both. The appeal of illicit, even macabre sexual behavior to some social conservatives [again, David Vitter is a perfect example]-- a trend that has produced no end of colorful scandals-- further reflects their sadomasochistic tendencies.

The sadomasochism that is latent in so many figures of the new radical right is often activated by a traumatic personal crisis. As Fromm explained, "Both the sadistic and the masochistic trends are caused by the inability of the isolated individual to stand alone and his need for a symbiotic relationship that overcomes this aloneness."

And serious political players expect President Obama to compromise and work things out with this pile of irretrievably damaged human refuse? This is today's Republican Party and this is why the country is so dysfunctional and unable to evolve with the changing circumstances of rapidly advancing times. They need their own country. I suggest Mississippi.

CHRISTIAN RIGHTIST JAMES DOBSON GIVES FREDERICK OF HOLLYWOOD THE BIG THUMBS DOWN-- PROVING IMBECILES SOMETIMES STUMBLE ONTO TRUTH

Looks like far right religionist Jimmy Dobson-- who has previously condemned Giuliani, McCain and Flip Flop Mitt-- is holding out for his one true love: Newt. Today he said he will not support Republican lobbyist Fred Thompson's quest for the presidency. AP divulged the contents of a private e-mail in which Dobson accuses the bumbling, plodding lobbyist, who last weak admitted he doesn't go to church, of being "weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives." The new Harris Poll shows Thompson has pulled ahead of the execrable Giuliani, almost as hated by many Republicans as he is by Democrats, and the rest of the pathetic pygmies™.

"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dobson wrote.

"He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to.' And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"

Thompson, busy sucking up donations in Texas, had no comment on Dobson's devastating accusations against him, accusations that will be taken very very seriously by much of the brain-dead, zombie-like GOP base. He would only say he's never met or spoken with Dobson but that some of Dobson's friends like him. I'm sure they do.

Last week Dobson wormed his way out of charges that he was illegally endorsing candidates on behalf of his politicized church. Bush's politicized FEC and IRS have been going after progressive organizations and fining them left and right but when it comes to reactionaries clearly breaking the law, like Dobson, no need to break a sweat.

EVANGELICAL ANTI-CHOICE LEADERS DENOUNCE DOBSON AS A GREEDY WHORE... PASS THE POPCORN

Yesterday we brought up that more and more evangelicals have moved away from the worst extremist positions of their radical partisan leaders. What I didn't mention yesterday is that there is also a serious split among evangelical leaders. Alan Cooperman, however, gets into it in this morning's Washington Post, pointing out a pile-on against money-grubbing holy roller Jimmy Dobson.

In a highly visible rift in the anti-abortion movement, a coalition of evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic groups is attacking a longtime ally, Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson.

Using rhetoric that they have reserved in the past for abortion clinics, some of the coalition's leaders accuse Dobson and other national antiabortion leaders of building an "industry" around relentless fundraising and misleading information.

Dobson is looked at by an increasing number of people as a charlatan and a crooked Elmer Gantry whose primary goal is to sheer his flock and to build a power base inside the GOP Establishment. He's been attacking mainstream conservatives in his headlong quest to get his candidate, Newt Gingrich, the Republican presidential nomination.


One of Dobson's many detractors is Brian Rohrbough, president of Colorado Right to Life. "What happened in the abortion world is that groups like National Right to Life, they're really a wing of the Republican Party, and they're not geared to push for personhood for an unborn child-- they're geared to getting Republicans elected. So we're seeing these ridiculous laws like the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban put forward, and then we're deceived about what they really do."

Another anti-Dobson leader, Rev. Bob Enyart, a Christian talk radio host and pastor of the Denver Bible Church, said the real issue is fundraising and all the millions and millions of dollars Dobson has been vacuuming up under false circumstances, deceiving easily deceived anti-choice contributors.

Isn't it time for a famous DWT quiz? Too bad D.A. Adam Schiff isn't running for president, but maybe Arthur Branch is. Can you identify his No. 1 fan?

My mother used to point out that Steven Hill, who played Adam Schiff, the almost-original New York County (i.e., Manhattan) district attorney on Law & Order (as all true L&O aficionados know, the drab D.A. in the pilot, filmed ages before the show was bought and went into production, was played by Roy Thinnes), had the cushiest job in show business. He hardly seemed to go outdoors; heck, he hardly ever even stood up. Plus, at least half of his screen time he seemed to be eating!

Quite a change from his Misssion: Impossible days! (What? You didn't remember that before Peter Graves became Jim Phelps, Adam, er Steve was IM-squad mastermind Dan Briggs? My goodness gracious, what are they teaching in the schools these days?)

Now, Adam Schiff I would vote for--for any office he chose to run for. Do you remember the episode where we find out that his wife died? Wow! Now that's acting.

I'm not so sure about Nora What-Was-Her-Name--you know, the in-between D.A. played by Dianne Wiest. Yeah, I kind of got used to her, but it wasn't the same. For that matter, I'd have to think twice about voting for A.D.A. Jack McCoy. Too narrow a prosecutorial focus for any other kind of public office.

(However, I'd vote for Sam Waterston as Forrest Bedford, the small-town Southern D.A. he played on I'll Fly Away. I've been watching the reruns on the AmericanLife cable network, and finding myself just as blown away by them as when the shows aired originally. And to underscore how long ago that was, consider that Sam W's entire L&O career lay ahead of him, and it's been now, what, 30 or 40 years?)

But this Arthur Branch fellow? I know he was supposedly appointed to replace Nora What-Was-Her-Name by a mean-spirited right-wing Republican governor, and sure enough, we had one of those at the time, so I guess that really could've happened, and I know Arthur has lived in NYC for ages and has lots of good-old-boy political contacts. Still, I can't quite buy him as the Manhattan D.A. That said, I've had a lot less trouble with him than I imagined I would when it was announced that Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson was not going to run for reelection but was going to join the cast of L&O. He's added an interesting philosophical perspective to the show, and he's an utterly adequate actor.

I like him fine, actually, and don't think he's the reason why the show has at long last been running out of steam. I even feel sorry for Fred, being subjected to the kind of wacko bullshit that comes with being talked about as a possible candidate for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. I mean, how icky is it to have field vermin like the Rev. James Dobson passing judgment on your Christianity?

(Personally, if I were a Christian, I would wear this as a badge of honor. What better Christian credential could you ask for than being pronounced not one by a Christ-hating megalomaniacal scumbucket like the Reverend Jimbo? It appears, after all, that his idea of a good Christian is the unspeakable Newt Gingrich. Isn't being pronounced the "anti-Newt" veritably to be singing with the angels already?)

I don't know about you, but I haven't seen an awful lot of "inside" political support for a Thompson candidacy, and yet the poll numbers are impressive for someone who hasn't mounted any kind of campaign whatsoever. Of course, the punditocracy seems unaccountably shy about pointing out that Senator Fred is now a TV star.

I do know, though, of one prominent Republican who has been pushing Fred's candidacy, and pushing it hard. I happen to be on an e-list of his, and just got this breathless update:

Momentum continues to build behind those of us who are encouraging Fred Thompson to run for the White House.

I’ve talked to Fred on a regular basis over the last two weeks and can tell you that he is strongly considering running for president.

Likely caucus voters ranked Fred among the top three Republicans in a recent Iowa poll, and those results reflect a growing trend.

A national USA TODAY-Gallup poll released just last week shows that Fred is one of the three strongest Republican contenders in the field.

Fred’s true conservative values and his ability to clearly communicate Republican principles (not just rhetoric) have allowed him to gain this incredible support without spending any money and without any campaigning--a remarkable statement.

Keep posting your statements of support and other ideas you’d like to share with Fred on my blog so that I can pass them along.  To leave a comment on my blog, please click here.

For today's DWT quiz:

Can you guess who wrote this?

Is it:

(a) Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, saying, "Fred is a close personal friend, and just one of a number of fine Republican candidates I would be proud to support"

(b) the Rev. Pat Robertson, explaining, "I'll teach that fat ass Dobson who gets to decide who's a Christian and who isn't"

(c) House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio ("I've been trying to persuade Fred to use some of my secret tanning creams--oops, did I say that out loud? I don't have any secret tanning creams")

(d) California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who nevertheless insists that he's "a better actor than Fred, as long as I don't have to say, you know, the name of the state I own, I mean run"

(e) former Vice President Dan Quayle, saying, "I knew all along that foxy blonde lawyer Fred fired was a lesbo--those types of dyke bitches always used to laugh at me when I asked them out"

(f) former Senate Majority Leader Doctorbill Frist, who said, "I've viewed videotape of him, and it's my considered medical opinion that he should absolutely be kept on life support"

(g) Sen. Jim "How Do I Know, the Bible Tells Me So" Inhofe of Oklahoma [for extra credit: is there any way of measuring once and for all who's nuttier, Inhofe or fellow Oklahoma wingnut Sen. Doctortom Coburn?]


THE ANSWER

All is revealed here.