a new form of mental illness??

[niyad]

I was thinking about this earlier tonight, while listening to Dr. Gino Strada of Emergency, and the picture of "coyote one" on another thread reminded me of my thought.

Are we, perhaps, seeing a new form of mental illness as we watch the disconnected, grinning, totally clueless, heartless waste of skin that is *? I mean, lunatic, psychopath, sociopath, dry drunk, cokehead, oedipal complex--none of these terms seems to begin to be strong enough to describe what we see on a daily basis--the total disconnect from reality, the total lack of caring, compassion, empathy, understanding, the almost maniacal belief that he is the instrument of the deity, the vacant, uncomprehending looks, etc., etc. etc. and, what is worse, is this something that the entire top level of this maladministration suffers from?

and if so, what do we do about it, before it is too late?

thank you in advance for your thoughts and opinions.

[Cetacea]

1. new, maybe. More pronounced,certainly . eom

[niyad]

2. thank you, and welcome to DU.

[Cetacea]

39. Thank you, Niyad, I have always enjoyed your posts..eom

[Random_Australian]

32. Welcome to DU!

[Cetacea]

38. Thank you

I am only new in the sense that I took on another alias.

[Rosemary2205]

3. Disconnected my ass!!!

Those guys know EXACTLY what they are doing. Don't think for one millisecond they are incompetent. THE PLAN is to fuck up the middle east. THE PLAN is to bankrupt the US. THE PLAN is to kill as many little people as possible. THE PLAN is to destroy the Constitution and everything that goes with it. THE PLAN is to transfer as much wealth as possible. They ain't retards pal, they're demonic and smart enough to get it done.

[deFaultLine]

5. Well...

I dunno, it looks like heavy metal poisoning to me sometime. The White House had a lot of lead paint removed when GHWBush was in office. Millie the dog had to be detoxed.

The failure of the moral senses could be lost, while the cognitive functions would remain. Most of our leaders grew up in a world that was pretty toxic--leaded gas etc.

I myself wonder sometimes about some of the tantrums that guys like Cheney throws...looks like a mentally ill person.

[niyad]

8. welcome to DU--a most interesting observation, and thank you.

[Rosemary2205]

10. Everyone has their own reality

We never know someone else's reality until we walk a mile in their shoes. IMHO just people the neocons couldn't care less about anything other than adding more billions to their billions doesn't necessary mean they are certifyable. (sp) -- any more than a welfare mom having yet another kid by yet another man means she's certifyable (sp) - we all have our own reality.

[niyad]

6. no, I have never thought they were incompetent--they are far too

frighteningly competent at creating hatred and havoc and wreckage. the question is WHY?

[this_side_up]

7. I agree with you. Since the beginning,

I've always thought Huh? I read articles and posts saying how dumb the Republicans are and look at the stupid things they say and do - insulting other
countries and their leaders; Thugs have no class or
tact, no manners, how embarrassing etc.

ALL of it is carefully thought out and plannned. Every bit of it. I wish we could find out how many psychiatrists and psychologists they have on the payroll
to predict We, The People's reactions to their bs and
what countermeasures are devised for each possible
reaction.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. !

:applause:

[LordshipLadyship]

35. welcome to DU

The disconnection comes in because they don't have any sense that it is wrong, against the law, immoral, that it harms others. I totally and passionately agree with you that's the plan, they're so full of hubris that they hardly try to conceal it these days. I don't see any difference between what they are doing and a sociopath. I don't. One of the characteristics of a sociopath is that he or she can operate totally without seeming to be a sociopath, and that's a intent, a carefully, even brilliantly thought out plan.

Sure Bush was in a situation where his personality was formed. However I don't think it was destined for him to go in this area and it is all about mental illness. Another person could have gone in a different direction. He was certainly exposed to other factors than his family.

My wife and her half-brother grew up in a fatherless, abusive family. Both she and her half brother were abused mentally and physically by her mother. The half brother went on to crime, drug use, drinking, etc. She did not, although she was in hospital after hospital for depression and self injury. Eventually both of them came to a place of healing, and made progress. Then both had relapse, he shot himself after finding out his wife was cheating on him. She is with me, still healing. Who can tell where the difference is? Surely, mental illness doesn't define a person, but it is a guide, and in some cases shouldn't be used as an excuse for what harm is done. To me it depends on the individual. If you're going to respect someone who is mentally ill, then yes, you have to look beyond the label. In Bush and his cronies' case, I offer no excuses, none. They're responsible for murder on a grand scale. Motivation: power and greed. Opportunity: White House stolen presidency. I'd find them guilty. That's why I find it amazing that people get bent out of shape when Bush is compared to Hitler. I fully understand the reasons. Ask yourself this, though. If back then people had the advantage of the Internet, and people could start to see the direction Hitler was going in, wouldn't they have stopped him, or tried? It isn't about saying they're the same. I frankly don't care if by my comparison I am offending people. Why? Because the issue at hand is too damn important for me to spare people's feelings even though God knows, I respect them. My worry is stopping Bush. If you show how they are operating and you say Bush is doing this, that and the other, and so did Hitler, yeah you offend. But you also ALERT.
I try in my small way to ALERT. I also even say I think the men and women and children who so horribly lost their lives under Hitler would not be offended by those of us who are fighting Bush and what he is doing to our America and the world. What we are doing TOGETHER is more important. You don't go after an enemy worrying about how you will bring him down. You shoot to kill figuratively in your research, in this forum, in helping others to see what you see, in your attempt to mend the voting system. You see what damage this administration is doing and you go for the throat. Do you believe for one instant that THEY don't go for the throat? If a child is in danger, and you see her or him sinking, don't you yell for help in any way you can, or do you yell quietly because someone in the neighbourhood might be disturbed? Bullshit. You SAVE that child. That child is America and the world we all share

Thanks for listening

Mr. Lordship

[Peace Patriot]

4. Take back our power and our sovereignty: our right to vote!

Rather than just being appalled all the time, we need to address ourselves to the mechanism of power by which we exercise our sovereignty as a people--our right to vote--which has been essentially taken away.

What we now have is Bushite electronic voting corporations 'counting' all our votes with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code and virtually no audit/recount controls--the result of the $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle engineered by the biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, in 2002--the infamous "Help America Vote Act."

Restoring TRANSPARENT elections is still possible by pressure and activism at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence. And it is a MUST DO, priority #1 item, if we want our country back.

WHAT do we expect from these egregiously NON-TRANSPARENT, insecure, hackable voting machines, controlled by corporations with very close ties to the Bush junta? Fair elections? Proper representation in Congress and the White House?

We MUST change this, and the most feasible road to change is in the local and state election venues. Without the right to vote, we can do little or nothing to restore lawful government. We can protest. We can be appalled. But if the will of the majority--which has always been for peace and justice, and good government, consistently over the last six years, in ALL the issue polls--cannot be enforced, then we might as well be shouting to the wind.


--------------------------------------

Practical suggestions:

1. Request absentee ballots. At least they provide a tangible paper record for challenges, recounts and investigatiions. (Absentee ballots were a great help to investigators in 2004.) Absentee ballot voting is a form of protest against the machines. It is burgeoning phenomenon. If enough people do it, the machines will be obsolete, and then we can work on getting rid of the central tabulators.

2. Join with others to closely monitor the elections and gather and document evidence. See UScountvotes.org, below. They need donations!

3. Demand that the Democratic Party fund INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS. Exit polls are used worldwide to verify elections and check for fraud. The war profiteering corporate news monopoly exit polls cannot be trusted (they are doctored to match the results from the voting machines' secret programming code; rather than being used to verify elections, they are used to confirm NON-TRANSPARENT results). The Democratic Party owes us, big time, for their lack of vigilance--and in some cases corruption--on electronic voting. This is one critically needed thing that they can do to help. Demand it!

4. Think long term. Saving our democracy promises be a long hard struggle. We obviously can't get rid of these machines before the '06 elections, so focus on doing our best with the Diebold/ES&S handicap (a 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Bushites and warmongers), and getting rid of them afterward, for '08. These machines are DEATH to our democracy. They ARE the problem. Without them, Bush and his "pod people" Congress would be long gone.

5. Tell people the truth. They NEED to know it. Engage them in the fight. Bumper sticker: "Help Us Beat the Machines--VOTE!" There is nothing more demoralizing or disempowering than constantly losing and not knowing WHY. The machines CAN be beaten by massive turnout--and can be heaped with ridicule, for their fraudulence, by massive absentee ballot voting.

Never give up on our right to vote! NEVER!

-------------------------

SOME RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496
Seven of these counties just promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

(Tide turning?) New York Times: "New Fears of Security Risks in Electronic Voting Systems" (5/12/06)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2278829

-----

More resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)


(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)

www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)
Provisions of the PA lawsuit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423739

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)


Also of interest:

Michael Collins (Autorank)'s searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy! Title: "Poll Shock" 11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Bob Koehler's latest: "Trust us: Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm
More Koehler:
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

HOWARD DEAN remarks on electronic voting machines 04/06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x994507

------------------------------------------------

Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

-----------

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

[niyad]

9. THANK YOU for those marvelous sources!!

[neoblues]

11. Bush Disorder...

"

The following article seems appropos...

George W. Bush's Disorderly Conduct
By Jane Smiley, HuffingtonPost.com.
May 14, 2006.

...

This brings us to little George. How do you like this for a description:

• frequent temper tantrums

• excessive arguing with adults

• active defiance and refusal to comply with adult requests and rules

• deliberate attempts to annoy or upset people

• blaming others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior

• often being touchy or easily annoyed by others

• frequent anger and resentment

• mean and hateful talking when upset

• seeking revenge

While I am not a personal friend of little George, I do clearly remember the report by Karen Kwiatkowski that he called the Constitution "just a god-damned piece of paper" (active defiance and refusal to comply with adult requests and rules) and that Condi Rice once cautioned the formerBritish Ambassador, "Don't make him angry." Every dispatch out of the White House indicates that temper tantrums are frequent, and we all know that blaming others is his calling card. Seeking revenge is his life work. So, what is this? This is "Oppositional Defiant Disorder," seen in lots of children, along with ADD, ADHD, and depression.

...

If you haven't seen it, the last half the "Disorderly Conduct" article is absolutely a must see! It describes our mentally deranged, vicious, immature little megalomaniac of a "President" remarkably well, and it sort of explains some things...

[CoffeeCat]

12. There are so many labels for behaviors like this...

...Oppossitional Defiance Disorder, ADD, etc.

Most of the traits listed under ODD and ADD are also traits of people who underwent
severe childhood abuse, and have PTSD as a result.

I think the entire Bush clan is evil and I think the entire family has cultivated a new breed of psychopath. Usually, these sickos wreak havoc only in their own little part of the world. Unfortunately, these classless thugs have gained power.

It's very sickening.

I know many types like this---serial abusers--and people who hail from horrendously dysfunctional families. They are dangerous. They have absolutely no conscious and no empathy. It was beaten out of them as children, and it never returns.

Our country is currently under the direction of a very maladjusted, sick person. In effect, our entire country--and the world--is suffering because of this.

[flordehinojos]

13. you have many elegant words

to describe a true, in fact, and possibly, the truest asshole on earth...and what does one do with an asshole? one cleans it up. and how are we going to clean up the truest asshole on earth? impeach the asshole, that is how.

[Random_Australian]

20. Good post.

[AlienGirl]

14. It's not new...Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus had it, too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligula

He comes across as aloof, arrogant, egotistical, and cuttingly witty, and is generally portrayed as insane. He is said to have cried "I wish the Roman people had but a single neck" when an arena crowd applauded a faction he opposed. Suetonius wrote that he often uttered "Let them hate, so long as they fear", and described this as a familiar line of the tragic poet (Accius); however, Suetonius also attributes the utterance of this line to Tiberius

[applegrove]

15. No. He is a patsy. Just what the neocons ordered.

[Random_Australian]

16. You know what is a big issue in the Mental Health Support Group here?

People making up shit about how he must be insane. How repubs must be insane. How those against this or freaking that is insane. Freepers are insane. yadda-yadda freaking yadda. It's known as armchair psychology. If you have a degree in psych, then speak, but in cases like this,

The fine persons of DU and the wider community are going to have to accept that

1) Having some diagnosed disorder does not imply or even correlate with bieng a bad person, and 2) It is the conditions and upbringing that gave the world the likes of *. If you had been in his place, you probably would have ended up similar. It is not some strange, abnormal internal goings on, BUT THE SOCIETY WE ALL HAVE MADE.

This is about accepting responsibility. Removing * from power by itself will do ten thousand times less than actually making it so that honest people are elected to government. Elaborate checks and balances? Yes, it help people for a while, but you only need to take a look around to realise that far more is in the shitter.

You hit a raw spot!

[Random_Australian]

17. b3t, I'm not letting go.

[sandnsea]

21. Sorry, no

He's a sociopath and most likely his mommy and daddy made him that way, end of story. You've got a valid point for many mental illnesses, not to mention our society as a whole, but not with George Bush. He's a sociopath who has no ability to feel empathy or even recognize the pain and suffering he is causing. Whether Cheney and Rummy are sociopaths too, I don't know, but there's no question Bush is. That comes from people I know who do have psych degrees.

[Random_Australian]

24. The people with psych degrees don't have the info.

Any psychiatrist who knows * well enough for a diagnosis is well covered by clinic-confidentiality.

You can't tell a person from their public image.

Who the hell made it so that one who is incapable of emotion is a bad person? Is it the freaking rudder of morality? Oh, wait, all them sociopaths people know, they are bad, but does it occur to no-one that only those who were complete pricks anyway are the ones who you can tell? Just because someone is a bad person does not make them a sociopath, or even incapable of emotion. Just because someone is incapable of emotion does not make them a bad person either.

Do you really think that if you impeach *, no-one will ever do bad in government again (barring of course they are 'sociopaths')?

That by installing whoever you deem normal, they will act in a moral fashion?
Of course. Anyone who is immoral is wrong in the head. No, no-one ever says it do they? It's just FReepers. And republicans. And Falwell. And whoever the fuck else. In other words, those whose standards are not ours.

[sandnsea]

26. He's a sociopath

And really, you can see that from behavior that isn't even connected to what he's doing in government. It's the little things that make it clear, like when he was asked about his highlight in the Presidency and said catching a fish. So maybe he didn't want to answer something specific to the presidency, but what about his daughters? What kind of person thinks about catching a fish before his daughters graduating from college? There's 100 examples of behavior like that, which have nothing to do with whether he's doing good or bad things as President. But you take all those inconsequential things and tie them in to his complete absence of empathy as President, and you've got a sociopath. Sometimes mentally ill people do bad things, that's a reality too.

[Random_Australian]

27. I know that. What I content is the conclusion you've reached:

Starting with this "complete lack of empathy" - groups, simple as that. Basically whoever is in your group will be the people you empathise with. If black people like the Katrina victims, or the poor like all the other victims are not in his mental group to which he identifies, he -just like anyone else when confronted with suffering that they don't empathise with- couldn't give a shit, but in the normal way. This makes him ten thousand times a piece of shit, it means he should have been impeached before any of this shit could happen, but it does not make him a sociopath.

The fish example could be for farken any reason. Basically, you see a public image of him, but really, you don't know anything much about the way he thinks in terms of empathy.

I do know that people with mental illness commit crimes too. It's the causal correlation that irks me.

[sandnsea]

28. It isn't casual

It may be casual with you, but it's not with me and many people who have analyzed him in depth. It's way beyond ignorant indifference, which is what identifying with your own cultural group would be. Like I said, it extends to how he treats his family, his wife, his own mother. It's varying reports from people he went to school with, teachers, etc. Everything about him. He's a sociopath and I mean that in the strictest psychological sense, the sense that I've only met one true sociopath in my life. Everybody who is selfish and callous and indifferent is not a sociopath. Cheney and Rummy may fall in that category, I don't know, I haven't looked into their lives as much as Bush's. Bush, though, he's a sociopath. I'm a recovering alcoholic and I don't consider Bush's alcoholism as any reflection on me. His claim to be a Christian doesn't reflect on true Christians. And his mental illness doesn't reflect on any body else's mental illness either. But it is important to tell the truth, especially in this time of rampant untruths, and the truth is, that man is a sociopath.

[Random_Australian]

29. One thing first: A typo of mine: "causal" it should read. "causal". sorry.

Food for thought, but if we can agree that 1) Mentall illness is not something that causes people to be complete pricks

And

2) People who still want to vote republican, and whoever the 20th or whatever hijacker was are not mentally ill, but in your opinion, that you have based on the sources you have found, * is sociopathic, then we might be getting somewhere.

By word of explanation, too many posters have contravened 1 & 2 if late. I'm starting to get very sensitive about it. Yeah, you can guess why.

So, what now? Agree? Or perhaps not?

[LunaC]

30. No doubt about it!

Sociopathic Traits

Affectively cold
Glib and superficial charm
Shallow
Callous
Insincere
Petty
Selfish
Self-centered
Consistent liar
Manipulative and conning
Defective conscience
Lack of empahy
Lack of remorse or guilt
Parasitic lifestyle
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Sense of entitlement
Lack of realistic, long-term goals
Irresponsible
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Blameful of others
Vindictive
Narcissistic

[Random_Australian]

31. Thanks for ascribing the traits you want, and I suppose you

have met the guy in person & now what he is like beyond the public persona?

Did you even READ the posts around it?

[LunaC]

33. It's not what I "want" - do a search on Sociopaths

I didn't pull that list from my ass. Those are traits commonly associated with Sociopaths as compiled by mental health professionals. Strictly judging * on his actions - which often speak louder than mere words - I have no reason to believe that there is any difference between his public persona and his private one. What you see is what you get.

[Philosoraptor]

18. I've met a lot of nutballs, and,

I've never seen any creature like Bush. His mannerisms, movements, demeanor, lack of understanding, and obvious lunacy are so shocking that most folks pretend not to notice.

I consider it one of America's lowest points to have this half wit moron as our president for 8 ridiculous years.

[Random_Australian]

19. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1232483&mesg_id=1232925

Complete bastard? Yep. Lunatic? Careful buddy.

[Mythsaje]

23. If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck...

If it acts like a screwball, there's a good chance that it is one.

You don't have to be a shrink to know the guy walking around dragging a shopping cart full of bricks may be shy a few himself.

[Random_Australian]

25. Uh huh. Jeez, because someone is immoral makes them a sociopath, I

suppose.

Quacks like a complete pric. Mentally Ill DOES NOT EQUAL A BAD PERSON! I'm getting a touch sensitive about persons acting like it. Bad person does not equal mentally ill either.

Complete prick? Yep. But what the hell do you know about what he feels and when and why? Have you gone through a long period of psychological counselling with him? I must say, that was supposed to be confidential.

Stop demonising the mentally ill.

If you are mentally ill in your country, you don't commit crimes near as much as you are the victim.

One moment, I'm off to get the stats on that. Edit: Can't see them. Shit. meh.

[Mythsaje]

34. Schizophrenics are much more likely to be the victim of a crime

than the perpetrator. This is true. Probably true of many other types of mental illness as well.

But I don't think the same can be said about sociopaths. They tend to be charming, likeable, and utterly without conscience. They act in their own best interests and see other people as little more than props in their personal movie.

They don't have to be "evil" but there is absolutely nothing stopping them from taking that path if it suits them.

Many, many sociopaths are never diagnosed because no one with the ability to diagnose them officially ever has the opportunity. The majority of them never do anything overtly illegal, or, even if they do, are able to talk their way out of trouble.

[Cetacea]

41. You are correct

The mentally ill are the most demonized group in the country. They are also the most non-violent, contrary to modern propaganda. The quickest way to get rid of someone is to deem them mentally ill, as said group has less respect than convicted murderers. The mentally ill, in the media sense, are sub-human. Sociopaths are another story and share more in common with criminals.

[NMMNG]

36. It would see, Doctor, that you've thrown roughly half of the DSMIV

at Chimpy. I can't imagine he's capable of remaining in the community, let alone the White House, with all of those conditions.

[mikelewis]

37. He's Zaphod Beeblebrox

"His job as president was that of a facade. While he holds the title of President of the Galaxy, he weilds no power whatsoever, and is merely a distraction for the public so that no one finds out that the real Ruler of the Universe is hiding out in a shack somwhere (and quite possibly deranged). His ability to constantly draw attention to himself makes him the perfect candidate for President. Zaphod Beeblebrox's rein as President was part of a conspiracy of such a secretive nature, that even he himself was not allowed to know about it."

Don't Panic
From the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams

[Cetacea]

40. it's partially an act

I would say he is a psychopath, but like most very intelligent.
The stupid act is to humanize him, so that people can relate to him, feel sorry for him to some degree. It's all very well thought out.