I was struck last night near the end of the debate, when Joe Biden became emotional, clearly remembering that wife and daughter that he lost so many years ago. It was a rare moment on genuine humanity in politics.
Palin's response was to deliver a canned statement of how John McCain is a maverick.
Does she not have an empathetic bone in her body? And that got me to thinking about how she advocates the "hunting" of wolves and how that compares to serial killers who start out by torturing small animals.
But here you go. This is from the American Psychiatric Association's manual describing Antisocial Personality Disorder. See how many you can spot in our friend, Gov. Palin.
- Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
- Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
- Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead;
- Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;
- Reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
- Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
- Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another
In the public statements by Gov. Palin and in the published accounts of her personal history (and I'm talking bone fide journalists, not rumors being repeated on blogs), I can see elements of all seven characteristics.
And here's the kicker...the APA says that only three of the seven need to be identified for the patient to be diagnosed with APD.