Even TV personalities get in on the smack-down. Yesterday, in her characteristically smug and classless manner, Joy Behar of The View once again showed she has no manners, calling a female politician a “bitch” and relegating her “to hell.” Pick the male TV news anchor or personality you dislike the most and imagine him calling a woman that name. Set you DVR, now that would be a show! Their heads would roll so fast we would all be wondering what took CNN and NPR “so long” to fire Sanchez and Williams. But that’s a different post.

Like you, I’ve come to expect politicians and the campaign commercial writers they hire to head straight for the gutter. Additionally, we all know that some in the media act just as childishly and immature as the candidates they cover. Their infantile rage only marks an inferior intellect, which no amount of makeup or stage lighting can mask. They are the first to scream and protest the vile travesty of bullying yet turn to Camera 2 with their teeth-bleeched smile and bully those who disagree with them. Nice.

Now we have President Obama at the other end of the beer-summit spectrum, calling on his friends to “punish our enemies” on November 2nd. It’s a great line for our Commander in Chief, the head or our military forces but when our Chief Executive uses it against his own electorate, he sounds like a bit of a bully. In fairness, he was looking for some “ass to kick” not too far back, so I guess we should have seen it coming.

This isn’t an election, it’s a gang fight. Politicians, under the guise of “public service” will bully and intimidate anyone to get what they want. Look at the billions being spent in campaigns across the country. You’re telling me they fight as they do out of the goodness of their hearts and the good of our nation? Public service, what a joke.

I’ve never cared for bullies. You can dress them in a tie or a skirt, put them in front of a camera or behind a podium, give them all kinds of title, clout and power but they are still bullies, forever stuck on the playgrounds of their youth.

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Don’t be shocked. Not too long ago CNN contributor Roland Martin suggested that our President “go gangsta” and “channel his inner Al Capone.”  Nice, now our President is taking advice from Roland Martin? Roland Martin? I didn’t know Roland was a boxing coach.

Well, careful what you HOPE for. Apparently, the Obama Administration is taking counsel from a talk show contributor? That is what political discourse has come to in this country? Really?

Ah, the Chicago way.

On a side note, ever notice that many people that threaten a physical fight, in truth, couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag if they had to? Just saying.

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While so many seem to focus on the Environment at the macro level, my view of late has dovetailed with a corollary People in Peril message. At the micro environment level many have started to wonder about personal climate change. Wild weather and even wilder financial markets, political uncertainty and terrorist threats, food shortages and threats to our fresh water supplies make some of us look towards preserving at a slightly more personal locale, heaven forbid the unthinkable happen.

Now some in the main stream media call this paranoia, positing fear mongers focused on Armageddon. For me, Hurricane Katrina was a wakeup call. No conspiracy theory intended here,  just plain old calculating of the facts. In times of great emergency, survival becomes personal. There simply aren’t enough “responders” to go around. Crossing your fingers doesn’t cut it in the 21st Century. You have to be your own hero/heroine.

When you can’t call on the Government, when you can’t call on outside emergency services, can you call on yourself?

Check out the American Red Cross and the American Preppers Network.

It’s not paranoia, it’s personal conservation.

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For as far back as I can remember survival was synonymous with being lost, seemingly trapped in some unimaginably foreboding and chaotic situation. Survival entailed building an emergency shelter, fending off wild animals or weather, finding food and water, administering emergency first-aid, relying on yourself when you could call no one else.  Survival was for super-humans, trapped by chance or accident, built to thrive in the face of risk.

Today, it seems a bit more probable and a good bit more personal for many Americans. Survival isn’t for the other guy. Chaos seems to be creeping ever so closer to home. Threats from wild weather, Wall Street and Washington, DC fill the news. Climate change, corporate welfare, Constitutional assaults, congressional grift and gridlock should serve, if not as a warning, then at the very least as a wakeup call.

Mother Nature or Big Brother, bad weather or bureaucrats.

Power Outages or Political Outrage.

Tornadoes or terrorists attacks.

I cannot think of a better occasion to launch BrianBrawdy.com than on a day when two of the top news stories support my point.

Wild Weather in the Big Apple.

CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights

At its core, survival and liberty are one and the same.

According to CNN, House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said he would vote against any resolution admonishing Wilson’s breach of decorum. “Rep. Wilson has apologized to the president, and the president accepted his apology. Last Thursday, Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi said that she believed it was time to move on and discuss health care. I couldn’t agree more, and that’s why I plan to vote ‘no’ on this resolution,” Boehner wrote in his statement.

Seems to me that Representative Wilson apologized for his inappropriate outburst. President Obama accepted his apology. Wilson says he ”would never do something like that again.”  The President then moved on when Wilson “apologized quickly and unequivocally, and I’m appreciative of that,” the President said.

One would think that a political body as distrusted and disliked by the American people as the House of Representatives would be a bit careful throwing around terms like “resolution of disapproval.” With its popularity and job performance is as low as it is, maybe they should steer clear. I’m not sure, but I suspect Kayne West is polling higher this morning than any member of the House including Nancy Pelosi.

Perhaps the House Leadership can book a Leno appearance?

You see, here’s the thing about a recent story in Science Magazine where the lead scientist in a report on climbing temperatures and the turmoil they bring to the Arctic region should give us, all of us, a wake up call.

In the Review of the article, Eric Post warns “These rapid changes may be a bellwether of changes to come at lower latitudes and have the potential to affect ecosystem services related to natural resources, food production, climate regulation, and cultural integrity. We highlight areas of ecological research that deserve priority as the Arctic continues to warm.”

Now, most will be fired up about this report lamenting the obvious assault on seals, sea ice, polar bears and additional flora and fauna. They will focus on the adverse affects on sea levels and people living along them. Through all the hoopla, many will overlook the hidden long-term impact on ALL of us. What “happens in Vegas” may very well stay in Vegas, but it isn’t true in the Tundra.

It easy to forget that our planet and its varied ecosystems are intimately interconnected at vast and ubiquitous levels. What happens in the Arctic is a Canary in our planet-wide coal mine.

Sadly, horrifically we are now learning that Jaycee Dugard was not the first victim of Phillip Garrido. For a disturbingly tragic yet fascinating report on the history of Garrido the sexual predator, see the story compiled and written by the talented Mallory Simon of CNN.

As this case further unfolds, it is nearly impossible to follow the trail and its facts without totally disgust.

Stealing people off the street, smuggling them to some seclude spot, sexually assaulting them and then shackling them in a shed?

RETURN 2 VENDOR

Roger Stephens, 61, was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree cruelty to children after allegedly slapping a crying two-year-old girl in a suburban Atlanta Walmart.

Are you kidding me?

CNN is reporting, that the child’s mother told police that her daughter was crying as they walked down one of the aisles. A stranger, later identified as Stephens allegedly told her,  “If you don’t shut the baby up, I will shut her up for you.”

Making good on his promise, just a few minutes he held the girl and smacked her across her face four or five times.

I don’t even know what to type next. A total stranger repeatedly smacks a two-year-old girl for crying? What?

He has been charged with first-degree cruelty to children; someone please tell me this is a felony.

The Associated Press is reporting that the Pastor’s body was “put into unnatural pose.”

Though there are some “promising leads” there are no suspects in this brutal murder, according to Police.

Obviously, and understandably, pastors and parishioners in the area are terrified. Regardless of the ultimate motive, terrorizing the local population is a part of the killer(s) plan.

Just how low can we go on the new-human-low scale?

Manjushri Carol Daniels.

“What other animal retires?” Michael Roberts asks. “If a lion retires today, tomorrow morning he becomes his brother’s breakfast.”

This is a great read about entrepreneurial brothers Michael and Steven Roberts.

That their story falls, not under the CNN banner of Bold or Brilliant or Brave or Best in America, but Black in America, is fairly sad.

I couldn’t care less about the color of their skin, only their courage, character and commitment to thrive.