[…Some techniques which claim to make the penis bigger only focus on the penis length. However it is often the case that not only did these products not work but they also fail to change the most important size of a man’s penis his girth. I noticed …

There is almost nothing a true liberal values more than empirical evidence. It soothes the cerebral maelstrom, lends calmness to uncertainty, provides stability in the face of cognitive dissonance. It is a sizeable rock in a moat of lasting ambiguity. It is a mooring from which a solid sense-of-self based on humanism and science can take root with pride and thrive in a sea of faith-based ignorance. It is truly life sustaining, for me especially, because I have never been blessed with faith. I am among the 1 in 4 (so some studies indicate) not so fortunate to have such a sanctuary in which to mentally retreat when uncomfortable truths may confront me.

Recent studies have shown that there actually may be a dominant gene in the human species—a “God Gene”—which explains the prevalence of faith. And it is a time like this that I curse my recessive faith gene and particularly miss having what so many others have.

* Omegaisnotjustanumber's diary :: ::
*

Faith…I want to believe Barack Obama. I want to trust our president. I voted for him. I gave him money. I wept for 8 consecutive days at some point during the day after he was elected, and have wept many times since. I am glad and filled with pride that he is the president of the United States…or…was.

To explain my unfortunate metamorphosis in these last 6 months from giddy idealist to empirical semi-cynic actually needs no explaining, especially to other people like me. They’ve watched, as I have watched, a continuation of some policies I find abhorrent—from a strengthening of the unitary executive and continuing use of the State Secrets Act, to the coddling of big banks. These two things are VERY important to me (and to many others I suspect).

I thought to myself before Obama was elected, if he does not give back some of the powers of the executive that Bush/Cheney snatched from the legislative branch, they would likely never be given back, and we would teeter towards totalitarianism under every future republican president.

He has not given the powers back.

I also thought that if we do not take this opportunity to break up banks that are too big to fail, they will be harder to break up in the future. This opening, too, may have passed.

There are other things, many things, too many to mention actually, that disturb me about Obama’s fledgling presidency, and they all point unmistakably to one thing in my mind—that Barack Obama may not be man I thought he was.

To be fair, a lot of that may be my fault. I got swept up in an idealistic euphoria during last year’s election season. Obama was never a liberal ideologue–never claimed to be–and it is not his fault that I let Kennedy memories light my mind with progressive possibilities with the coming of a new democratic president. It happened with Bill Clinton as well. And like Clinton’s presidency, Obama’s has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for me.

And to be fair, we can’t ignore the incredibly strong conservative institutional pressures on a new black democratic president and his real need to calm the fears of the market and the media. If he did some things early on that seemed a little to centrist for my taste, well, I thought, that’s the price that Obama and we progressives must pay.

For awhile.

But as I have watched his presidency progress, the centrist tendencies have not subsided. I kept thinking—I just know he is going to turn into a new FDR—any time now—if not this month next month…and then the next month comes. And we get more executive bonuses, extensions of war, more government secrecy, and an all out defense and whitewash of Bush administration crimes…

Just one more month I thought…

And you know what? Even with all those disappointments, I have still been willing to give Obama the benefit of a doubt on health care. On the public option to be exact. Perhaps because I desire it so much. I still want to believe in him. I want to have faith in him.

The President says he is for the public option in almost every venue in which he appears. He surely must be for the public option…right? I mean, to contemplate anything else is almost unthinkable. To take the leap from believing a good man to not believing him as a default setting…a charismatic president, one I and millions of others have put all their trust in, this early in a new democratic presidency…well, I just can’t do it.

Just one more month…

And it is that context that we find ourselves embroiled in a great healthcare debate and I find myself thinking about that default setting of trust for the President. And it is in that debate that President Obama has assured the masses—but particularly his supporters on the left—that he favors a public option. And I want to believe our president. I want to have faith that he is telling the truth. As always, I want to have faith.

But I’m afraid at long last my recessive gene is failing me. Again.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/28/773871/…

Today's Conversation Old School Friday – You'd Never Guess It, But… http://bit.ly/1Z5aPB

OMG, she is being so obnoxious.

I understand everyone can't be Obama or Biden, but I think the speeches have all been from the heart, except McCain's forced speech.

JMHO.

I actually like the way Luther Vandross sings “The Impossible Dream” better, but still I love this song either way.

I'm probably gonna watch Biden & Caroline's. What did McGrumpy and Hatch say?

Would that be the America where the Supreme Court picks your president instead of counting all the votes? Would that be the America where rights to privacy are ignored? Would that be the America where the Vice President shoots his best friend in the face? Or would that be the America where an idiot from Alaska and a college drop-out with a radio show could become the torchbearers for the now illiterate Republican party?

I fear that would not be the America they want back. I fear that the America they want back is the one where black men don’t become President.

I remember that America. In that America people screaming at public gatherings were called out for what they were – an angry mob. Of course, they wore sheets to cover up their bad hair. Let’s be clear about something: if you show up to a town hall meeting with a gun strapped to your leg, the point you are trying to make isn’t a good one. Fear never produced anything worthwhile.

And what’s all this crap about killing your grandmother? Are you people honestly that stupid? This has become less an argument about healthcare reform and more a statement about our failed education system. Margaret, I don’t know what plans you’ve made up there with Howard, but down here with Harold, we have living wills to determine how we will leave this world when the time comes. Mine states that unless the feeding tube is large enough for a piece of pie, I don’t want to be hooked up to it. Harold, of course, says his can only be connected to him if the other end is connected to a bottle of single malt scotch.

Now shame on me for making a joke about a serious subject, but if these morons are going to show up and scream at their elected officials, they need to educate themselves about the subject at hand. No one is planning on killing you or your grandmother with rationed healthcare or death squads. By the looks of the American citizenry turning out for these town hall meetings, we’re doing a fine job of killing ourselves with fast food, cigarettes and an overindulgence of ignorance.

The Founding Fathers couldn’t have seen this coming. If they had, the right to free speech would have been conditional upon one’s ability to read. But the Founding Fathers didn’t plan on the likes of Palin, Cheney and Limbaugh.

I too long for the America I remember as a child, Margaret. The one where men used guns to hunt quail and women visited a beauty salon at least once a week. Oh, those were the days. I wish we had them back. I mean it. Really.
http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2009/08/1…