Anyone else feel whip-sawed by recent events?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Obama's policies...first they're great and we're happy...

Then they're awful, and we yell and stomp.

I can't decide which way is up, damn it.

Just now I'm reading about how Alaskan waters are open for potential oil drilling sites...

OTOH, he did get rid of the measure that prohibits clinics from counseling pregnant women about abortion--the gag rule.

I'm sure you can think of your own examples.

It's making me nuts!

I want to be hopeful, but it's so damn hard...

x(

[barbtries]

1. yes

sigh. i'm all for the good, i deplore the bad, it's schizo.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Not me.

But then again, I've always been paying attention.

This latest drilling nontroversy has nothing to do with drilling in ANWR, or opening up more territory for exploratory drilling like McCain/Palin were campaigning on.

[Nikki Stone1]

3. Whip-sawed?

That sounds right, but what does it even mean?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My understanding is that it means yanked back and forth...

Rapidly...

I have to admit that I haven't looked it up, though...

I think it originally meant something to do with the lumber industry: as in sawing the wood.

:shrug:

[Nikki Stone1]

6. Well, that definition covers it.

Although "stabbed in the heart with a rusty hatchet" is more how I feel.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. Oh, I hear you!

I wanted something short and snappy to get people's attention...

[Nikki Stone1]

9. Well, it worked on me. :)

Of course I am sitting inside, waiting out the rain. :)

[NYC_SKP]

13. I think the lumber industry uses the term, "Rip Sawn"...

Which means sawing along, not across, the grain.

I looked up whipsawed: "subjected to a double market loss through trying inopportunely to recoup a loss by a subsequent short sale of the same security" to which I can only reply :wtf:


I like your definition much better!

:rofl:

[leftstreet]

4. Yep

[NYC_SKP]

8. Dear CaliforniaPeggy,

Check your PM, then let me know if you're any less worried.

:hug:

[slipslidingaway]

10. Not too much, when the corporate media began promoting Obama...

right after the 2006 election I was skeptical and have remained so ever since.

Better than McCain definitely, for the people, maybe not so much.

:(

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. I thought this thread was going to be about Tiger

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. Sorry to disappoint you...

But I have nothing new to say about him.

:shrug:

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. I hear ya!

:toast:

[tridim]

14. It might just be information overload.

Take a break for a few days.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. It's hard to get my brain free of it...

[JuniperLea]

17. Good advice...

This is why I take weekends off... completely... I try not to go near a computer at all.

[Hatchling]

15. No.

Just whipped raw. Dissappointed is an understatement. :(

[rug]

18. Sorry to break this, but he too slept with Tiger Woods.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. Yeah, right...

:rofl:

[stray cat]

20. I've got a job to do, a life to live, family and friends to love -

Obama is better than anyone else I'm likely to get and sense I don't expect things to get better economically I have my hands full doing everything I can to stay above water and keep my carreer

[JuniperLea]

21. As one of the very last around here to hop on the Obama wagon...

No, I'm not surprised at all by Obama's actions. I am, however, surprised as hell at those who think they can marry someone THEN change them:) Seems many had expectations based on wishes and impossible hopes, but they weren't based on anything Obama said or did.

Obama hasn't changed, and he hasn't lied at all. I never expect a politician to fulfill all my desires, but quite frankly, Obama come closest! I knew he was going to pull this war crap, because he said so. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now, but he didn't lie to us. The way some people are behaving, you'd think he pulled a big stinky bait and switch.

[question everything]

26. Very well said.

It is interesting that those of us who were "the last to hop on Obama Wagon" are the ones who are not heart broken. We were the ones who did not expect a second coming from him or, for that matter, from any politician.

[Skittles]

23. nope

nothing Obama has done has surprised me

[question everything]

24. My dear CaliforniaPeggy, it is about expectations

Many just now realize that the man, after all, cannot walk on water. Many have projected on him their dreams and hopes and aspirations and, of course, no one cam be everything to everyone.

He was not my choice in the primaries so I did not follow all of his speeches. Besides, after watching the movie about his campaign, it appeared that most were at battleground states and at the first caucus and primary states.

But someplace I've seen clips of his speeches and he did talk about possibly sending more troops to Afghanistan. So, as some have observed here - he is doing what he said he would do as a candidate.

And he appointed another woman to the Supreme Court and will have more chances to at least prevent the court from further tilting to the right. Unfortunately, the right has the young Turks there

And we will get some health care reform. Not anything that most of us want, but something. A small step that, we can hope, will lead to a giant leap.

When it comes down to it, he has to work with what he has in Congress and this is where we have to wonder about what a Democratic majority is even doing.

As for the Nobel Peace Prize - it may be embarrassing now, but it is the Prize committee that should be embarrassed, not the President.

Just hang on

:hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. Oh, believe me, I am hanging on.

And normally, things don't bother me...

But today, for some reason, the events just hit me. And I felt overwhelmed...

And I just wanted to see if anyone else felt that way...

Thanks, sweetie!

:hug:

[tandot]

27. No. The drilling in Alaska post here on DU didn't tell the whole story

Here is part of the article (last paragraph):

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/80196.html

"The Bush administration's five-year plan for oil and gas exploration off the U.S. coast is under review by the Obama administration. Salazar has held public hearings, including a meeting in April in Anchorage where then-Gov. Sarah Palin and her replacement, Sean Parnell, spoke in favor of offshore development. The agency is still considering whether to let the plan continue through 2012 or write a new one."

You'll have to thank Bush for that plan and it is under review by the Obama administration.

I used to get news here on DU and could be confident that it was pretty objective. Not anymore. Some DUers have made it their mission to post only negative news or post article that don't tell the whole story.

[mopinko]

38. +1. it is the changes here that have my head spinning.

opinion has taken over news. where have i heard that before?

obama is exceeding my expectations of just what i thought the president was in charge of in this country. he is gonna loose a few battles with tptb. i think i saw that on his face when he made the afghanistan speech. pushing back on the military is something you do carefully, without haste.

take a break, peggy. breathe.

[Robb]

46. You nailed it.

I remember one day this year where Obama, on the same day, apparently opened up a zillion acres of forest for logging and simultaneously protected a zillion acres elsewhere.

At least that would be the reasonable conclusion one would've drawn if you only read DU that day.

It's quite sad how that part of this place has changed.

[Cerridwen]

28. Here's your definition, whipsawed, so you understand why that word

came to your mind. If your mind is anything like mine, it hides old anachronisms but doesn't forget them until they apply though I can't remember *why* they apply. Then I google, then I remember. I hope for your sake your mind is better organized than mine. LOL

1. To cut with a whipsaw.
2. Games To win two bets from (a person) at one time, as in faro.
3. To cause to move or alternate rapidly in contrasting directions: "The bond market . . . continues to be whipsawed by fears of rekindled inflation" (Steven E. Levingston).
4. To defeat or best in two ways at once.

I bolded the parts I think apply here.

For me, even the "victories" feel hollow; taste like ashes; sorry for the cliches and "talking points." It's hard to celebrate one group's victory when it comes at the expense of another group. For example, Democrats won the Congress and the WH yet we lost gay rights - at the same freaking time. Whipsawed; emotions are dragged in two directions at once (def. #3).

So much of that happening lately. Banks saved! We're paying for them. Economy improving...for whom? A lot of mixed messages and conflicting emotions.

I'm rambling; a symptom of my own whipsawed emotions.

It's difficult to remain hopeful when at any moment a victory for "my" side may mean a defeat for my friends and loved ones.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

30. Thank you, my dear Cerridwen!

Exactly right, esp. #3.

You have done my work for me, and I appreciate it...

[Cerridwen]

32. You are welcome.

I had to find that answer or it was going to wake me at 3:00am. You awoke my anachronism brain cell(s). :D

I, too, was wondering why I was feeling so...antsy about things even though my expectations were practically non-existent. I didn't expect quite this many conflicting success/failures at once.

From me to you for whatever little bit it helps: :hug:

[omega minimo]

29. No

more gob-smacked, actually. :hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

31. That works too!

:hi:

[omega minimo]

33. yup.

:pals: good photo and poetry weather. what are you up to? where are you freezing? Snow in the Valley!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

35. We're freezing (sort of, lol) by the Santa Monica Bay...

Current temp is about 55, which is COLD for us!

The storm is clearing away into the east now...

Photo thread in the Lounge.....great sunset tonight!

:pals:

[omega minimo]

37. Ice skating on the Venice canals?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

40. Salt water doesn't freeze, silly!

Even if it were cold enough (which it isn't!)

Nah, I live in Manhattan Beach...

:P

[omega minimo]

41. The OC, dudette!!

[Occam Bandage]

34. The Alaskan drilling is the same ongoing drilling that's been happening for decades.

The only thing new is the blaming-Obama part.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

36. I didn't know that...thank you.

That does put a different light on it...

[mdmc]

39. Hang in there my friend..

It will only get worse..:pals:

[Divine Discontent]

42. they're walking the tight rope and it does none of us any good.

but I think your tops, so don't let it get you too bothered! You are one of the happy people, we can't have the happy people down, or we all mightaswell just drink some Jim Jones koolaid! ha... hang in there CP!!! You rock.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

43. Aw, thank you...

That's really sweet of you...

Not to worry...

This too shall pass...

:hug:

[Divine Discontent]

44. my Mom wrote that verse to me when I was...

conflicted with my coming out, and my faith, and it always has meant a lot to me. This too shall pass... we shall not be afraid although the winds howl, the ground shakes beneath, chaos rules over a once peaceful land, and the sunshine that used to warm our skin, seems but a distant memory - but there is truly hope - and this too shall pass!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

45. Thank you for telling me this...

That makes it very special to me, and something I will not soon forget...

:hug:

[Divine Discontent]

47. I wanted to share that with you, so your welcome. I have long thought of you as being a delightful

lady, as I think I've said briefly in the past, in seeing your posts (always beating me) responding to a Nance thread.

:hug: