You are doing a perfectly great job of discrediting yourself. 

And yet all the criticism is being directed at you and not me.

Ah yes, the old "I'm tired of getting my butt kicked and I'm going to try to get the last word in" ploy.

You're as transparent as a pane of glass.

But for your sake, I'll drop it.

I'm not going to try to discredit you as you apparently are me.  You are doing a perfectly great job of discrediting yourself. 

Now, where did all of you mature folks go? Can we move on to discuss the subject originally introduced?  Jason, or Hardliner, can you help us get back onto the subject of Jerry Falwell? 

You'll get no argument with me on that one, GrpThink.  Oops, I mean anon

Unlike you, I don't pretend to leave the blog world and then post from an anonymous account.

Once again, you prove yourself to be a fool and a hypocrite.

Framing yourself as the victim is entertaining for those of us that silently laugh at you.

I prefer to laugh at him to his face.

It's guaranteed to provoke a response where he either lies or makes a personal attack he claims he never does.

Are you pointing a finger of condemnation at me for defending myself against the name-calling "anon"?

That sounds accurate, Hardliner.   You are also a true uniter.  Rather than saying something divisive, you chose to identify something that you and I share in common.   As I've mentioned before, you may be able to pull off something that, so far, I have been unsuccessful in doing----uniting those of disparate political views.  More power to you!

Doc wrote, "Give yourself a little credit, dusty, for your ability to form accurate first impressions."

My own perception is that you're a moderate who reflexively sides with, and chooses first to believe and trust, conservatives.

Sort of like how I am a moderate libertarian who reflexively sides with, and chooses first to believe and trust, liberals.

I agree with that as well.  You'll get no argument with me on that one, GrpThink.  Oops, I mean anon.  Please excuse my Freudian slip. 

Physician, heal thyself

Meaning

Attend to one's own faults, in preference to pointing out the faults of others.

Origin

From the Bible, Luke 4:23 (King James Version):

I agree with that saying, even if it takes a little help from another physician, and from the man upstairs.   We all need healing to a certain degree, and we all need one another to heal.  Can you picture a brain surgeon performing surgery on his own brain? 

I would actually rather go to a psychologist who is receiving treatment than one who was in denial about his/her own issues and projecting left and right onto his/her patients. 

This is an admittedly feeble attempt to get back on the blog topic, but I'll take a stab at it.

Jerry Falwell was not a psychologist, he was a fundamentalist preacher and a conservative activist with a predilection towards self-righteous-sounding, bigoted-sounding statements.  I believe he was sadly out of touch with his own issues and that he projected them onto others frequently, and with significant damage to follow in the wake.  If he had applied a slightly altered version of the saying to himself ( ie. something to the effect of minister, heal thyself), and if he had sought treatment, he probably wouldn't have hurt so many people. 

BTW, I just wanted to add that being a psychologist, and being a patient, are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  I know some great psychologist colleagues, who are also patients.  It doesn't make me respect them less or assume that they can't help others while they are helping themselves.

I'm not a patient, but I wouldn't be ashamed of it if I were.  Our society must get over the stigma associated with having personal problems or mental health problems.  Having problems makes you a human being, it doesn't automatically mean you're some sort of psycho nut case.  If you don't have some sort of issues, you are not living on this planet. 

Well, ma'am, how would you characterize my view on the war?  What about my view on socialized medicine or treatment of the homeless mentally ill, or treatment vs. prison for those addicted to drugs.  And what is my position on capital punishment? 

Give yourself a little credit, dusty, for your ability to form accurate first impressions. 

You are not rude or hateful by any stretch of the imagination.  You are not a bully.  You are a loving, kind, gracious, and, above all, an objective person, GrpThink.  Oops, you may be on to something.  I've just caught myself in a big, fat lie. 

And BTW, I said I wasn't "biting," I didn't say I wasn't nibbling. 

GrpThink, your bait is hate, but I'm not biting

The fact that you're responding to my posts demonstrate that you are biting.

Once again you're outed as a liar.

Didn't I say, "Frankie"?  : >)

Thanks, Jason, for the correction, and for calling for an end to the name-calling.   We've missed you.  Welcome back. 

GrpThink, your bait is hate, but I'm not biting.  As Jason said, "it's Friday" (not that its okay to engage in name-calling on any day of the week). Name-calling says more about the person doing the name-calling than the person being called names. 

And dusty, Friday is a great day to let go of an old grudge.  You once called me a "moderate," and now you're throwing me in with the "right-wingers."  What a difference a grudge makes. 

these are not personal attacks, first of all, because these are public figures, and second, because I merely criticized their public behavior

You are without a doubt a first class moron.

It isn't a personal attack because they are public figures? You can't be serious. Unfortunately, you are. And that makes you an freaking idiot.

"spouts off at the mouth before engaging the brain in any serious, logicially-guided reflection." is not criticizing their public behavior. It's a personal attack. Criticizing their public behavior would be for something like farting or picking their nose in public, not for what they say.

You are by far one of the worst parsers of the English language I've ever run into. You rate up there with the Holocaust deniers.

Once again you confirm my believe that you are no psychologist, but a patient.

GrpThink, these are not personal attacks, first of all, because these are public figures, and second, because I merely criticized their public behavior, I did not go after anything personal or attack their characters. 

I'd recommend that you listen to the song by Frankie Goes to Hollywood that starts out "Relax, don't do it..." the next time you are tempted to groundlessly attempt to discredit me.  You are so eager to make me out to be a bad person that you impetuously jump to conclusions about things I say and about my reasons for saying them.  Remember, "Relax...don't do it...when you wanna jump to it..." 

She, like Rosie O'Donnel, spouts off at the mouth before engaging the brain in any serious, logicially-guided reflection.

How many times have you told us you don't make personal attacks?

Each time was a lie apparently.

I really don't know much about Dobson, boston, but I heard that he was trained as a psychologist, and that he is a conservative activist.  I don't know that much about Falwell either, because the few things that I heard from him made him sound self-righteous, bigoted, uncool and very arrogant. 

I had a hard time warming up to him, and if I were in a state of psychological crisis, I probably wouldn't turn to Dobson, because, from what little I've heard from him, he seemed to have an answer for everything before even understanding the nature of the questions. 

I'm sure he's better at helping people than Dr. Laura, but he seems to have in a common a sort of quick-and-easy-one-size-fits-all formula that's supposed to apply to every person. 

I've heard Jerry Falwell also did lots of good things, but I don't know what those good things are exactly, and I'm not sure that everything he preached was "filth."  There may have been some good things mixed in with the bad, I didn't have the patience to listen for that when he did open his mouth. 

I've got to go folks.  It's been nice debating with all of you and I hope you all have a great evening. 

I understand the temptation, boston.  Jerry Falwell had a way of bringing that reaction out in people. He was a polarizing figure, like Anne.  I've never supported any of their bigoted, self-righteous, hate-mongering statements or actions. 

But you said yourself that harboring such hatred goes against your beliefs.  If you follow those beliefs, you will get the benefit of aligning your beliefs with your actions.  When a person's beliefs are consistent with his/her actions, that person will be at peace with him/herself. 

I hated the man, as much as I can hate, which generally is not my nature. I do celebrate he is dead in the same fashion as those who celebrated the death of Hilter, Stalin, Saddam etc.

Mattloch, not everything that passes for forgiveness is true forgiveness.  Those who commit crimes should be held accountable and society should be protected from those who would harm innocent children in ways that can never be healed. 

Psychologists have often been accused of presenting contributing factors as excuses for bad behavior.  In some cases, the accusations have probably been warranted.  The only reason factors contributing to a crime or to an act of poor judgment should be identified is for the purposes of learning.   Forgiveness should never be used to excuse bad behavior, just as factors contributing to the crime should never be used as excuses to justify wrongful behavior, only as ways of learning from the lapse in judgement so that future lapses in judgment might be prevented. 

Hardliner, it takes a good, kind-hearted person to know the heart of another good, kind-hearted person (not that I am consistently good or consistently kind-hearted, I am not).  I also want to add that I understand the temptation to hate someone who has been hateful towards you.  If you believe someone has deliberately targeted you and folks who are close to you, the natural temptation is to return hatred with more hatred.  But the cycle of hate has to end somewhere. 

When we hate those who do us harm, we strengthen their hatred of us.  We add fuel to their fire.  When somebody comes on here and says something mean to me, the first reaction I have is to say something mean back to them.  But what will be accomplished by returning hatred with more hatred?  Will it make the world a better place?  Will it make the world a more peaceful place?  Will it stop the war in Iraq? 

Unfortunately, Jerry Falwell left a bitterness in a lot of people simply because he did not know how to love people the way Jesus taught us to love people.  This came out in the hateful, bigoted, judgmental, self-righteous tone of many of his remarks.  While I support many of his beliefs, I've never supported his methods of delivering them, and I've never supported anything he ever said that divided people and fueled an environment of hatred. 

Maybe this will help clarify a few distinctions and highlight the sort of thing that makes me really despise someone.  I'll use Doc as an example of what it is not.

Doc feels that it's wrong to hate someone almost regardless of what they have done.  While I think there are some exceptions to the rule (explained above), I cannot get mad at Doc over this, because his opinion is based on the goodness in his heart.  Kindness and humanity are the sources of his opinion -- not hatred and inhumanity.

I can never disrespect something that has a kind hearted basis.

There are others who, in stark contrast, seem to enjoy bashing and hating kind and gentle people.  Some of them are right here on this blog.  Show a glimmer of concern for the well-being of other human beings, and these hating, vicious dogs attack you for it.

These people seem to hate goodness itself.

Sometimes I can misjudge people, but usually I can tell when someone's opinions or actions are fundamentally based upon kindness and compassion, or hatred and malice.

yet you dont go after her for her unfounded hatred.

Because to Doc, Annthrax is "one of us" (meaning someone he likes).