"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"

Tuck's awesome new scratching post has been studiously ignored by the pussycats -- Babe in background staring off to the right -- even as the traditional carpet-covered alternative is a popular stopover several times daily. And yet it's not a problem.

"According to a new study,"the mere belief that you are getting a workout affects physiology much as the workout itself does. That is, exercise may affect health in part through the placebo effect: You believe you are doing your body good, and that belief leads to some of the well-documented benefits of exercise," reports the Wall Street Journal -- via blogfriend Jill Fallon of Business of Life, who cites a US Food and Drug Administration report on "The Healing Power of Placebos":

"Expectation is a powerful thing," says Robert DeLap, M.D., head of one of the Food and Drug Administration's Offices of Drug Evaluation. "The more you believe you're going to benefit from a treatment, the more likely it is that you will experience a benefit."

The same could be said about the national "debate" over whether we are -- or should even try to be -- winning or losing the good fight in Iraq and elsewhere in the War on Terror. It was Herbert Marcuse, the dark muse of the utopianist left, whose "power of negative thinking" infiltrated and poisoned the waters of so many of the weak-willed opinion shapers of today. In our salad days we scoffed at Norman Vincent Peale's "Power of Positive Thinking," but now we know for sure he was onto something. The Victory Caucus is trying to fan some of those homefires back to burning bright. Be sure to head on over there and take a look. As some pipedreaming blogger suggested the other day, what if the MSM took a month -- or even a week or two -- to call a cease-fire to gloom and doom and come out swinging for our side? Who knows what demoralizing effect it might have on the enemy? Oh, never mind.

Comments

[goomp]

It comes down to the will to exist. Do the people of the USA still have it? Or has a loss of faith in the ideals upon which the Nation was founded evaporated in the malaise of easy living and loss of moral strength.

[Jille]

It's the NOCEBO effect - I will harm. The bad effect entirely due to the subject's pessimistic belief and expectation.

I think that's just what's happening.

It's a discouraging sight when too many don't have the desire for victory much less the will to see things through.

[Teresa]

I think many many more people than you would think have the "will to win". But while so many recognize that the MSM distorts the coverage of the war on terror - they fail to realize that the MSM also distorts the "feelings of the people".

Even in the age of the internet - the silent majority is still out there... everyday people, who want to win, who know we can win, who are disgusted with the losing attitude of the press. The trap is there - and we step in - believing this one thing the press tells us, while believing nothing else.

How many times have you heard lately - the election was a notice for George Bush to pull out of Iraq? The left skews everything in this direction. They fail to realize that people can be angry at the way the war is progressing because they think enough is NOT being done or it's being done badly. It's not the war that is wrong - it's the execution. Yet the MSM would have you believe that every American wants to cut and run! Balderdash!

The Victory Caucus is a wonderful thing if we can present it to the world at large - make them sit up and take notice - show them there are Victory minded people out there.

We aren't alone and I would venture to say that we are the majority.

[Gayle Miller]

As to the scratching post, the cats will take a shine to the new one in their own good time and when you least expect it. THAT is cat logic.

Hope all is well and that y'all are safe and warm. Our weather has been appalling, made the more so by the most INEPT drivers in the entire country! Glad our office closed at noon and stayed that way until Thursday morning (although it still took me over 1 hour to navigate a 5 mile drive to work).

[tuck]

Once again, the "mast" is NOT intended to be scratched. As previously reported, I've spoken w/ both Tine and Th' Babe regarding this matter, which explains their "studied" indifference.