(From Britt Lawrence, "Fascism Anyone?")
Fourteen characteristics common to Fascist regimes:
1. Powerful and continuing nationalism.
2. Disdain for the recognition of human rights.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
4. Supremacy of the military.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. Controlled mass media.
7. Obsession with national security.
8. Religion and government are intertwined.
9. Corporate power is protected.
10. Labor power is suppressed.
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14. Fraudulent elections.

You be the judge. I think we may have drifted beyond the flirting stage.

Back from vacation. We flew back from Florida last night. The temperature went from 70 degrees to 10. And I call myself sane.

I get a kick out of Republicans. They cry about how reliant we are on the government. They don't want to help the poor. The don't want to raise the minimum wage. They don't want price regulations. They don't want universal health-care. They claim those things are too expensive, that the government should not be meddling in them. My question is, I wonder who they think the government is? I always figured it was us. When we ask the government to help us, or when we ask it to underwrite certain programs, like universal health-care, we are asking us to do that. It is for us. We are the ones who need those things, for us. Government should not be some abstract, foreign body that we work against and can't recognize. I don't buy the crap that the government can't afford those things, or shouldn't be doing them. That's a diversion that rich Republicans, actually rich anybody, likes to use against us. Well, it's time to confront them on their "that's socialism" crap. It's time to stand up and tell them they're wrong. Universal health-care is a whole lot more necessary and useful than universal war, or more tax breaks for the rich. It is time to take back what is rightfully ours. The government.

ON VACATION. WILL SEE YOU JANUARY 29. THERE ARE SOME BENEFITS TO RETIREMENT. HEADED FOR WARMER WEATHER. HOPE ALL IS WELL FOR YOU IN THE NEW YEAR? DID YOU REMEMBER TO MAKE ANY RESOLUTIONS?

I've been adjusting to retirement. Twenty-five years as a mental health and substance abuse counselor. Keeps you busy. Unfortunately, there was always plenty of work. What can happen to people hasn't changed so much over the years, but the environment surrounding the counseling business has.
I was trained as a family therapist, which was somewhat unusual for the time. When I went to graduate school, there were only two in the country certified as family therapy training programs. My style was to go slow, take the time I needed, and by the end of the session, hopefully I was able to change something about how the individual, couple, or family, were handling the situation. I my be ten minutes with them, or two hours.
Today, it's all about speed and how many people you can see in a day, or week. Praises come from high productivity and how fancy you can make computer generated goals and objectives, most templated to fit some accrediting or managed care agencies idea of what it is you should be doing. There is no time to teach or supervise the younger, less experienced counselors. I think management is worried about what you might say to them concerning todays priorities. For me, it became all show and no talent. Emphasis moved away from the clients and settled on the amount of money you can generate. Of course you need to make money, but no one is left to measure that against your mission, which I continue to believe, perhaps mistakenly, is to do everything we can, in any way, shape, or form, with ability to pay or not, to help people who are having difficulties with their lives. Maybe the times passed me by. Maybe the old school is not compatible with the new one. Whatever the case, I don't regret retiring. I would rather struggle with what to do with my time than to wake up at night worrying that I didn't have enough time to convince my client that living is more worthwhile than killing yourself, or staying married, while difficult, is in the long run a valuable lesson about life, intimacy, and love. I can definitely sleep better.