Public Service Announcement

The following are excerpts taken from a web site regarding Narcissistic Personality Disorders. "How to Recognize a Narcissist," by Joanna M. Ashmun. Used by permission. With a link to http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/.

I have observed very closely some narcissists and their inability to pay attention when someone else is talking is so striking that it has often seemed to me that they have neurological problems that affect their cognitive functioning.

They borrow their opinions and preferences and tastes from whoever strikes them as authoritative at the moment.

Given distance, or only transient and intermittent contact, you can get along with narcissists by treating them as infants: you give them whatever they want or need whenever they ask and do not expect any reciprocation at all, do not expect them to show the slightest interest in you or your life (or even in why you're bothering with them at all), do not expect them to be able to do anything that you need or want, do not expect them to apologize or make amends or show any consideration for your feelings, do not expect them to take ordinary responsibility in any way.

It is also essential that you keep emotional distance from narcissists. They're pretty good at maintaining a conventional persona in superficial associations with people who mean absolutely nothing to them, and they'll flatter the hell out of you if you have something they can use or if, for some reason, they perceive you as an authority figure. That is, as long as they think you don't count or they're afraid of you, they'll treat you well enough that you may mistake it for love. But, as soon as you try to get close to them, they'll say that you are too demanding.

I've seen this happen often, where narcissists will go out of their way to stir up other people's expectations and then go out of their way to disappoint those expectations. It seems like a lot of pointless work to me.
Narcissists work for a goal, too, but it's a different goal: they want power, authority and adulation. Lacking empathy, and lacking also context and affect, narcissists don't understand how people achieve glory and high standing; they think it's all arbitrary, it's all appearances and it’s all who you know. So they try to attach themselves to people who already have what they want, meanwhile making a great show of working hard. Narcissists can put in a shocking amount of time to very little effect.

Narcissists are totally and inflexibly authoritarian. In other words, they are suck-ups. They want to be authority figures and, short of that, they want to be associated with authority figures. In their hearts, they know they can't think well, have no judgment about what matters, are not connected with the world they inhabit, so they cling fanatically to the opinions of people they regard as authority figures.

Narcissists are naive and vulnerable, pathetic really, no matter how arrogant and forceful their words or demeanor. They have pretty good reasons for their paranoia and cynicism, their sneakiness, evasiveness, prevarications. This is the one I get suckered on. They are so out of touch with other people and what goes on around them that they are very susceptible to exploitation. On the other hand, they're so inattentive, and so disconnected from what other people are up to, that they don't recognize when someone is taking advantage of them. ^

Lacking empathy is a profound disturbance to the narcissist's thinking (cognition) and feeling (affectivity). Even when very intelligent, narcissists can't reason well. One I've worked with closely does something I characterize as "analysis by eggbeater." They don't understand the meaning of what people say and they don't grasp the meaning of the written word either -- because so much of the meaning of anything we say depends on context and affect, narcissists (lacking empathy and thus lacking both context and affect) hear only the words. (Discussions with narcissists can be really weird and disconcerting; they seem to think that using some of the same words means that they are following a line of conversation or reasoning. Thus, they will go off on tangents and irrelevancies, apparently in the blithe delusion that they understand what others are talking about.) And, frankly, they don't hear all the words, either. They can pay attention only to stuff that has them in it. This is not merely a bad habit -- it's a cognitive deficiency. Narcissists pay attention only to themselves and stuff that affects them personally. However, since they don't know what other people are doing, narcissists can't judge what will affect them personally and seem never to learn that when they cause trouble they will get trouble back. They won't take other people's feelings into consideration and so they overlook the fact that other people will react with feeling when abused or exploited and that most people get really pissed off by being lied to or lied about. ^

The most telling thing that narcissists do is contradict themselves. They will do this virtually in the same sentence, without even stopping to take a breath.

Narcissists are threatened and enraged by trivial disagreements, mistakes and misunderstandings, plus they have evil mouths and will say ANYTHING, so if you continue to live or work with narcissists, expect to have to clean up after them, expect to lose friends over them, expect big trouble sooner or later.

A Clarification

The preceding post was written by Headline News and not Scott Welsh. When it was posted on the Evesham Forum,since this is a group blog, sometimes posts are listed as being by one author instead of the other.

Just For Kicks and Giggles

A mercantile license fee will make things more expensive for the consumer.

Ok, let’s do the math. Numbers don’t lie, people do.

Just for kicks and giggles let’s use round numbers for those that hate math like me.

Residents pay 82% of the municipal budget; businesses shoulder 16% of the budget. That’s not only disproportionate, it’s just not fair!

Large anchor stores: Target/Wal-Mart/Sears $2,000 per year

Large corporations: Hill International/Davis Enterprises/Parker McCay $2,000 per year

Now, let’s divide $2000 by 365 days in the year. The survey says $5.47 a day.

Target/Wal-Mart/Sears will pass on this giant $5.47 a day increase to the consumer? Let’s do the math, even if, each store added 1 cent to 547 products, which, in any of these stores, one register can ring in a day. That’s an absurd thought, not going to happen.

Let’s talk about Hill International/Davis Enterprises/Parker McCay, same numbers apply. It would be virtually impossible for these corporations to even justify passing on $5.47 to consumers. Quantify it this way, if Parker McCay has a monthly retainer in Evesham of $7,500, which translates into $250.00 per day (without billing for extras) and Davis Enterprises owns the Promenade, Allison Apts., Sagemore, the Weston Club, etc. I am sure the $5.47 doesn’t pay for Starbucks for two of the owners. Justify passing it on to the consumer, not possible. Same applies for Hill and all other large corporations doing business in Evesham.

Let’s face it, they benefit from the location, Evesham is the center of the “money” towns.

It’s about time, we as taxpayers get a break, without breaking our backs.

Hypocrisy Is Alive and Well in Evesham

The following is a press release sent out by Republican Club President/Evesham Republican County Committee VP, Dennis Dugan, whom also sits on the Zoning Board, is a Commissioner of the taxing body the MUA (thanks for the 30% raise in my water bill) and sits on the Board of the Burlington County Board of Social Services (Is that a paying job?)

hypocrite:
1. a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.
2. a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, esp. one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.

The red is my commentary.

EVESHAM REPUBLICAN CLUB
P.O. Box 82
Marlton, NJ 08053


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dennis Dugan
March 2, 2006 (856) 596-5131

EVESHAM REPUBLICAN CLUB OPPOSES STEALTH SALES TAX INITIATIVE

Republican Club Strongly Opposes the Creation of a New Tax Since when?

Marlton - Evesham Republican Club President Dennis Dugan today expressed dismay Why is Dennis dismayed? Maybe because the Republican brain trusts in charge didn't come up with this or that actual thought was put into the budget process to try and save taxpayers money at a recent proposal by Councilman Mike Schmidt to create a business privilege fee, which is equivalent to a stealth sales tax.
Really now, it surely would be better to tax the residents as usual.

A tax by any other name is still a tax, Yes Dennis, that is true, deferring 8 million dollars is not a savings to the tax payer, but you are deferring the inevitable and the taxpayers pay the freight as our municipal taxes go higher and higher. Does 32 cents to 48 cents in the last 5 years ring a bell? said Dugan.Does Councilman Schmidt believe that by taxing businesses, they will not pass this additional burden onto consumers? Other towns not only do this, but it works quite well and no, the burden is still not shifted to the taxpayer or deferred until next year. This proposal is a sneaky way to implement a new tax Who is sneaking, this is right out there for the people. Sneaky is deferring school taxes to have a 0 budget increase and then telling the taxpayer's this is a good thing. which is not only anti-consumer; it would also have a detrimental effect on economic development in the township. Economic development? God I hope so, isn't Evesham large enough?! This proposal is nothing more than the creation of a stealth sales tax.

I wonder if Councilman Schmidt has considered how many Evesham residents also patronize local businesses and would be affected by this brand new tax, concluded Dugan. The Evesham Republican Club strongly opposes the creation of a stealth sales tax, disguised as a business privilege fee Let's face it Dennis, not only did you not write this, but the only thing you people are really worried about is not thinking of it first and God forbid your pay to play fundraisers paid for by the vendors may be a little lighter next year. Give it a rest.

Wean yourself from deferrals?

Oh please, I sincerely hope this is a joke, 8 million dollars is sufficient enough dept via school deferrals. Why defer, because it's the easy answer. I challenge the mayor and council to do better for the taxpayer. This story appeared in the BCT today
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-03012006-619832.html

Special Saturday Council Meeting

The Mayor & Council will hold a special council meeting this Saturday, March the 4th at 9:00 am. Early and a Saturday, gee, think they really want anyone there. I sincerely doubt it. Hopefully Gus and friends have had enough time to figure out a special, extra, double secret plan to hoodwink the tax payer into believing that another deferment of school taxes is the way to go, or better yet, maybe we could continue to rape the MUA like the golf course. Look how well that turned out.

I can't wait to see if anyone other than Mike Schmidt has a plan. Maybe, Gus and gang can use his plans for next year and call them their own.

It's time for our tax dollars to be spent on people that actually can think without the help of those dipping into our pockets. It's shut up or put up time.

Bleak, but Not Hopeless

I attended last night’s council meeting and was surprised in more ways than one. We taxpayers have paid for the sins of past councils for years, this is nothing new, robbing Peter to pay Paul has been the magic tool to create 0 budget increases, especially in an election year, without a care as to where the money comes from or what impact it will have later. This is voodoo economics and surely not the way to run a multi-million dollar corporation. The following are high and low points of last nights meeting.

HIGH

Councilman Schmidt and Councilwoman Sarcone actually brought ideas to the table.

LOW

No other council members had anything to add but negativity regarding the new Council members’ ideas.

HIGH

Councilman Schmidt offered a 5 point plan which included as his number one item to stop the practice of deferring school board taxes. He offered for a first, for Evesham to get out of the real estate business by selling off Twp. owned property that has no “strategic” value to Evesham. He also offered up combining the Planning & Zoning Boards to create a land-use board as other Townships have done at build out. He proposed to put limits on when the Township can use a professional and set spending caps for priority use, project management or other less critical requests. Councilman Schmidt also proposed a business privilege fee for commercial businesses with a codicil that this would be a dedicated fee for use only for defraying the costs of police, fire and Evesham road repair and/or maintenance. I believe Radnor Twp. did something similar here is their plan. www.Radnor.com/government/finance/bpt.html


Councilwoman Sarcone offered to cut 2 cents from the dedicated 3 cents for open space for this year only as a way to generate income. She also wanted to have the MUA give the Township a lump sum of money or “gift” for budget bail out.

LOW

The Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and our newest Councilwoman Olt added nothing of value. The actual dept for deferred school taxes in a whooping $8,000,000.
Everyone that contributed nothing, did nothing, other than rip apart Schmidt and Sarcone’s ideas.

In order to balance a budget, we must do something other than rely on the past to predict the future. We can no longer put a band-aid on a gaping wound.