Every once in awhile I need to light myself on fire.
I need to take the bullets, slings and arrows so that other people don’t have to.
I need to say the things that need to be said. You know that many of you are thinking it, but I am going to say it, and face the wrath and consequences.
Mentally ill people need to be quarantined.
Drug them up, lock them up, but for the love of God, just shut them up.
Fine. I am a compassionless, heartless b@stard. So what? When mentally ill people are not around, I have something that is more priceless than platinum. I have peace of mind.
I was not born with this hostility. It has taken a lifetime for me to want to take these people and rip their tongues out so that they cannot utter another bat spit crazy word.
I was not born wanting to hack their hands off so they could never send another angry text message at 4am.
I was not born wanting to be a vigilante because these mental lunatics have lawyers that want to trumpet their causes as they sue because they are angry about something, even if they are not sure exactly what and why they are angry.
As a productive worker, I have seen truly deranged people force my firm to spend legal bills defending junk lawsuits while refusing to say exactly what they want. Even Al Queda has a list of actual demands.
Legal Aid lawyers take these cases, and thousands of dollars later my firm still has no idea exactly WHY the other side is angry. They have doctor’s notices, but it has nothing to do with us.
Even when they do not sue, they call in and complain. One woman screamed at me for 10 minutes because her husband was cheating on her. She did mention her “condition,” but finally I had to ask her exactly what that had to do with our company.
Apparently we randomly cold called him. She was checking all of his messages to see who was on his cell phone. I finally convinced this nutcase of a woman that we had never met, spoken to, or done business with this man. I will never get those minutes of my life back.
It is not just work. One woman I went to college with once blew up at me as I was planning her birthday party. She had just seen the movie “Thelma and Louise,” and it put her in an angry mood towards men. She had “issues,” and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
18 years later, this woman sent me hate mail because she did not like one of my columns. That hate mail will be an entire column in itself. She has threatened to sue me if I publish it, even though I have told her the names will be redacted. Needless to say, her language was as uncivil as her brain was fried.
These are not aberrations. Some people are just certifiable.
An ex-girlfriend of mine was very troubled. When I say troubled, I mean unstable. When I quickly broke it off, the hostile phone calls kept coming. I had to call her mother, who apologized for her daughter’s behavior, and promised to make her cease. She did.
Now all of these nutcases were women. Yet men get no exemption.
Twice in my life, I have had roommates that were simply not mentally all there. They hid it well in the beginning.
Both of them would fly into rages over politics, especially when they did not take their medication.
In fact every one of these people mentioned above was politically left wing.
I am not in any way implying that being a liberal makes one mentally ill. I am sure there are non-liberals that have mental illnesses. I have just been lucky enough to not meet them.
I will at some point try to analyze why the correlation between mental illness and far leftism is so strong, but that is not what today is about. My suspicion is that leftism teaches people to rail against perceived injustices. Easily susceptible people then consider every possible real or imaginary slight to be an injustice. They become crusaders. Railing against the rich and the powerful is just an extension of railing at random inanimate objects on the street.
I did not start these political conversations. I would be watching tv, minding my own business, and they would start yelling. You cannot win an argument with a lunatic. You have to wait until they burn themselves out. It is truly like being subjected to domestic terrorism.
Again, my analysis is not scientific. Anyway, back to the crazies.
Two members of my family are mentally ill.
The good news for me is that neither one of them are my mother or father. The bad news is that my parents want me to be more “compassionate.”
No. I am done. I gave at the office. Repeatedly.
I am tired of being let down. I am tired of having to tolerate bad behavior. I am tired of being told that these people are “not well,” and that “they can’t help what they do.”
Yes they can. They can check themselves into treatment centers. If they won’t, then their caretakers should forcibly enter them.
Some say the law will not allow this. Well the law needs to be fixed. Do we have to wait until these people boil a bunny rabbit or kill a productive human being before we realize that something should have been done? The Son of Sam may have been a lovely child, but if a dog is telling him to kill people, either shoot the dog for telling him to do it, or get rid of him for listening!
Some say that a major problem in this society is that we do not give mental illness the same respect that we give physical illnesses. There is a major difference.
Nobody used cancer or heart disease as an excuse to make my life miserable. The physically ill do not drag down healthy people.
Mentally ill people are a threat to the very survival of people who have a chance at success and normalcy.
I have experienced years of trying to love “sick” relatives only to be violated over and over again.
I cannot be pulled out of a business meeting where serious issues are on the line because somebody is having a breakdown and crying because that is what they do.
My parents have told me to just turn my cell phone off. No. I leave it on in case of an emergency.
This gets to the heart of what I freely admit is rage towards these people. It is not the normal people that should be forced to adapt. It is so easy to tell productive and sane people, “Just change so the behavior of ill people will not interfere.”
I don’t have to change. Nor should I. It is the people who scream and yell at inanimate objects that need to change.
“They can’t help who and how they are.”
That does not mean I have to tolerate these people. Get them away from me.
One day I plan to have a family. I cannot have these people near my family. Safety comes first.
What if one day I gave birth to a mentally ill child?
I would be crushed, angry, bitter, and would still love my child. What I would not do is let them be unleashed on society to wreak havoc. I will get them the appropriate treatment.
Those who are responsible for mentally ill people, be it their parents or their government, must force these people into getting better. In fact, if a parent of a mentally ill teenager does not get them treatment, and the mentally ill teenager goes and kills somebody, the parents should be arrested immediately.
“You can’t try the parents. They have suffered enough.”
No. The people that had their family member killed by a lunatic are the ones that suffered. The parents enabled this. Behind every act of violence by one of these monsters is a person or people that did nothing to stop it, preferring excuses over corrective actions.
Don’t be fooled by feel good Hollywood garbage. In real life Forrest Gump is not charming. He is not a hero. He is a babbling psychopath that most likely is wielding a knife while yelling about “The eye of the dog of the drum of the morlock of the power broker of the King of Henry the Eighth I am!”
I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I have a right to walk down the street safely. I have the right to watch television without being verbally assaulted. I have the right to get through a business meeting without “emergencies” that are not actual emergencies getting in the way. I have the right to not be inundated with text messages at 4am.
I have the right to not have to deplete my savings because others failed in their financial obligations, and will continue to fail forever and ever. A 0% success rate is a pretty reliable statistic to predict future failures.
I have the right to be left the heck alone.
I don’t care how many people get hurt by this column. I really don’t.
Call me every name in the book, but I honor my responsibilities.
When you have pets that are wild and out of control, you get them spayed or neutered. If people are willing to get their animals treated so that society does not suffer, then surely people deserve no less.
Drug them up. Lock them up. Do what it takes. Just shut them up.
Otherwise we will all be driven to that level of insanity, and nobody will be left to produce.
Besides, if any one of us sane people snap and kill one of them, we can always just claim we are crazy and be absolved of all responsibility.
Heck, it works for both of my relatives. They attack everybody and answer to nobody.
I am done trying to help people that only hurt others. At this point I would be willing to stick them in Guantanamo Bay before it gets shut down for good. Maybe they can make the Al Queda crazies even crazier. It would be interesting to see who surrenders at that point.
Mentally ill people turn into verbal terrorists. They become verbal (unless they cross over into actual) suicide bombers. The only solution is to break them in half. Indulging them does not work. Enabling them emboldens them.
Like other terrorists, the solution is force.
I pray that the various people I have cited above, including my relatives, get forcibly dragged into the appropriate treatment facilities. I hope they get drugged against their will until they stop being threatening.
I have the right to live in peace and tranquility.
Until the streets are cleared from these dangerous people, none of us are safe.
“They can’t help it.”
Well make them help it.
Because I can’t help it anymore. I shouldn’t have to.
I gave at the office. Then they interrupted a critical meeting and demanded that I give even more.
It’s them or me. It sure as well won’t be me. I worked too d@mn hard.
eric
In all my experience with addicts and alcoholics, many of whom have underlying psychiatric issues, one would think that I would feel the exact opposite with you.
Not at all, I’m on the exact same page as you are.
You can love them, but you dont have to trust or like them.
If your illness proposes a threat to me or my family I will f**k you up in heartbeat as quickly as I will get you help if you sincerely want it.
You said you dont feel bad about your attitude, and I believe you. But if you ever find yourself feeling the least bit guilty just remember that submitting to the guilt is the exact thing that will make things even worse for that person and you.
“I will at some point try to analyze why the correlation between mental illness and far leftism is so strong ”
Maybe this will save you some time.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=56494
“For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.”
Gonna have to disagree with you on this one, Eric. For starters, Mental Illness, much like other chronic conditions, has many different levels. Not everyone who is mentally ill goes around talking to dogs.
I’ve suffered from severe depression for years. You didn’t know that, did you? I function normally, hold a job, pursue my music, and get on with my life. A LOT of people are like me- they have a condition, they deal with it, and they get on with their lives.
Unfortunately, like a large part of our society, a lot of people have conditions and do not take responsibility for themselves and their actions. These are the people that worry me. A very dear friend had an ex husband who went off his medication, and beat her within an inch of her life. We’re talking hospitalization, not just a slap on the ass. What didn’t help matters was that the cops took 2 days to respond to the 911 call, and refused to let her press charges. But that’s a different story.
The problem with a lot of this issue is that often you can’t see symptoms until it is too late. Suicide is not an illness- it’s a symptom of depression, and a terminal one at that.
Locking someone up for having a serious medical condition is not a solution. Rebuilding our society so that people take responsibility for their actions, deal with their problems, and get on with their lives- that is a solution. Don’t ask me what the fastest way to get there is.
And also- remember, some people are just irresponsible assholes. I’ve had former roommates who lost their job and didn’t care when they couldn’t pay me rent and utilities. I returned the favor when I didn’t care when they found themselves looking for a new place to live. Some people claim to have issues or problems when the real problem is that they’re just worthless human beings. And I unfortunately don’t know what the solution to that is.
-Hauk
“I’ve suffered from severe depression for years. You didn’t know that, did you? I function normally, hold a job, pursue my music, and get on with my life. A LOT of people are like me- they have a condition,
they deal with it, and they get on with their lives”
I think thats the point Eric is making.
Instead of reaking havoc on the world or blaming you shortcomings for whatever, you dealt with it and chose not to have someone else hold your hand.
I’m an addict and an alky whos been diagnosed bipolar, chronic depressive and whatever else the quack techs could come up with.
I say quack with reservations because if you notice psychiatry and psychology are called “practices” and not exact sciences becuse at times the meds prescribed actually made things worse.
I’ve done a lot of nasty, unruly and thoughless things in my life but I believe tht as long as you have the capacity and brains enough not to step in front of moving train you should take responsibilty for yourself and seek the appropriate course.
If your are brought to some kind of sanity with treatments or meds that allow you know that moving trains are bad then its upon you to maintain the care you are getting so as to stay that way.
“Locking someone up for having a serious medical condition is not a solution. ”
For some partys involved it is, especially when the safety of others is at stake.
The problem with our prisons is that they just dont offer the other half of the solution which is to treat or determine what further action is needed.
They will refer you to the appropriate and even force you to as long as you’re in custody. But if your sentence is shorter than the term of treatment all bets are off once your released.
On some cases where its charcter and behavioral defects prison actually works. At some point some of just get sick and tired of being sick and tired and locked up so we adapt a lifestlye that never really cures us but does keep temptation at bay.
Maybe if conservatives weren’t so cheap, we could afford to have a place to put all the crazy people. ;)
JMJ
Micky,
Unfortunately, that’s not the point Eric made. His essay begins with the blanket statement:
“Mentally ill people need to be quarantined.”
The major problem with this is that mental illness is an extremely diverse spectrum- from mild and functioning to severly psychotic/dangerous. If you quarantined (and there’s a funny word because it’s not contagious) everyone who had some kind of mental illness, you would have only a handful of people left who were free.
Yes, some people are so severely disturbed that they are a danger to themselves and others. Most of us are not. And those of us who are functioning and dealing don’t need anyone going around saying we need to be locked up.
As for the problem with prisons… well, that’s an argument I really don’t want to get into, as I really don’t have a practical solution to offer, and I don’t want to clog up Eric’s blog with a list of what’s wrong with the system.
Its a hard decision because most of em are liberals and if treatment were limited to just locking them up that would be great.
No sense in putting a bunch of expensive resources like drugs and therapy into some. I believe in the case with liberals its mostly organic defects coming as result of a mothers diet limited to pine nuts, lettuce, and bunch of crap.
I discussed an acquaintence of many years, who I know absolutely has
a worsening case of dementia. He forgets everything. He forgets what he asked, and the responses. He asks the same questions over and over and over again. He forgets where he parked. He forgets his jackets. He forgets sometimes where he lives (but somehow manages to find it). He forgets what day it is. He is, to put it mildly, annoying.
I asked at a local restaurant, a psychologist, who was accompanying a group of mentally “challanged” adults. In fact they were retarded. She said that if this acquaintence falls too often, he might injure himself severely, requiring months of hospital care or rehabitation. (I told her he doesn’t want any help..believing therapy doesn’t solve problems).
She winced, but understood the problem. She said that eventually a serious injury will result in his deteriorating quickly..both physically and
mentally. (He has no physical problems of any consequence).
I thought about contacting his HMO, then decided against it.
I considered it a mitvah if contacted (I do one/day).
He is on his own.
Several months ago, I decided to sit outside a local restaurant. An obviously deranged elderly man came up to me and this same acquaintence, who I was having coffee with. The man (about 70) had a cane to help him walk (or so I thought). He started cursing both of us. When it got out of
hand, the acquaintence yelled something back at him. He lifted is cane as if to strike.
At this point, I took out my pen (it’s actually pepper spray) and held it close, ready to fire.
Fortunately it never got to that.
Next time, I’ll simply walk away immediately.
Fortunately with both individuals they have not hurt themselves or me
and my friends (and acquaintences). But, I asked myself, what would have happened if he had actually struck us with that heavy cane. Would I now be writing I think to myself?
Hmmmmm, I wonder if I should buy that taser? But then again, If I were in New York State, I think it would be illegal. So much for the liberal
mentality.
A friend of many years, told me about a book titled, “The Day the
Catskills Cried”.
It’s about Trudy Resnick Farber, born into a rich family which owned
a TV antenna factory in New York State. She was abducted in 1977 by
an admitted psychopath, who had been hospitalized for a short time for
his illnesses. He was a realtor, who had been refused a loan by her.
She was abducted at gunpoint in her home, her husband and his business
friend both tied up. The kidnapper had purchased a 22 rifle in a nearby
city, without any problems.
She was taken by car into a nearby woods, and placed in a small
vault placed in the ground. Covering the box was a plywood board,
secured by a metal rod and lock. He tomb was about 5 inches shorter than she, and about 3 feet deep. She had just a few inches to maneuver.
The kidnapper telephoned her father demanding a ransom. The money
was quickly obtained in exchange for her release.
When the state police and FBI found her, she was dead, not having had sufficient oxygen, even though there were 5 bullet holes in the plywood
cover. Her death was gruesome to put in minimally.
She was a trained psychologist at a local clinic.
Her kidnapper, was sentenced from 25 to life, without parole. He is
still alive.
Hauk:
“Unfortunately, that’s not the point Eric made. His essay begins with the blanket statement:”
“Mentally ill people need to be quarantined.”
Not really, if you go on to read he makes many exceptions and suggests that they get help, or be quarantined.
Eric;
“Yes they can. They can check themselves into treatment centers. If they won’t, then their caretakers should forcibly enter them.
Eric;
” I would not do is let them be unleashed on society to wreak havoc. I will get them the appropriate treatment.”
“The major problem with this is that mental illness is an extremely diverse spectrum- from mild and functioning to severely psychotic/dangerous. If you quarantined (and there’s a funny word because it’s not contagious) everyone who had some kind of mental illness, you would have only a handful of people left who were free.”
I think you need to determine the difference between a genuine a$$hole with character defects and someone who is truly chemically imbalanced.
These people who either commit themselves or are committed by the state or a relative are quarantined and appropriately so in the sense that they are (depending on symptoms) cut off from certain stimulus like violent programing, news, or those that can draw unwanted emotions, family, lovers…
Today we live in a society where we right away take our problems to a psychiatrist or psychologist as a means to portray us as victims of nothing than our own selfishness or stupidity. For some, it seems liberals mostly, the basis of psychology/psychiatry is to eliminate moral responsibility.
I’ve worked with addicts and alcoholics for at least 15 years now and run into idiots all the time whom I tell to beat it, who simply had too much to drink one night or couldn’t handle their partying and crashed the car or ran someone over and want to use our facilities as an escape to portray them as something other than a poor decision maker.
Sorry bro, so far you just havent taken full advantage of the learning and maturing process and your emotional developement is screwed.
“I think you need to determine the difference between a genuine a$$hole with character defects and someone who is truly chemically imbalanced.”
Before you go accusing me of not having gone through a learning or maturing process, try to remember that not all chemical imbalances make a person inherently dangerous or in need of containment. Many people with true chemical imbalances can manage them with simple drugs, and then continue on with their lives. Personally, I do fine with St. Johns Wort- it helps get me to a level where I can deal with my depression. I do not take the heavier chemical drugs because of other side effects. What remains of my depression after the SJW- I pretty much suck it up and deal.
Not every case of mental illness is a cry for help, a rejection of moral responsibility, or a result of selfishness or stupidity. Nor do I believe it to be unique to liberals- a very libertarian friend of mine committed suicide back in November. Some people have a chemical imbalance- this is a physical problem, not one related (at least as far as most scientists can tell) to one’s upbringing or political leanings. Some people do suffer depression as a result of a bad childhood- and a lot of people can overcome this. It’s not an easy thing to do. Nor does it necessarily require a person to be quarantined at any given time.
“Before you go accusing me of not having gone through a learning or maturing process, ”
I’m sorry, that was meant to be directed at you.
I should of made it apparent that I was quoting myself as I dismiss the guys I was talking about.
“Not every case of mental illness is a cry for help,”
I hope I didnt imply anything like that.
I work with people who are genuinely sick and believe that if an arm or a leg can come out shoter at birth a brain can just as well be defect.
many times its nothing but trauma or alearned process in ones life that is not their fault that must be reversed or dealt with.
if you had to grow up with a mother who told you to your face that she should of drowned you at birth i’m sure you woould undertstand.
I also believe that these imbalces can be inherited as its true that most ( 3 out of 5)offspring of addicts and alkys turn out the same way.
I dont do any drugs at all to help my imbalances, twice now I tried to off myself as a result of them , Paxil was one, like I said, its a “practice”. I refuse to be the institutions Guinea Pig.
A lifestyle change that focuses on the positive and knowing my place and limitations seems to work well.
Instead of fighting my quirks and anger I embrace them as gifts and put thought to them so they can be attributes.
Once again, lets use “locked up” instead of “quarntined” if that makes you happy.
It still needs to be done at sometime to a relative extent depending.
But yea, we can just lock up everyone that bugs us.
And you have to admit, sometimes they can be entertainment.
I think God had a sense of humor when he made people like Helen Thomas and code pink moonbats.
I used to work at a ticket booth in Wakiki on the sidewalk.
Everyday for a few months or so this homeless guy would croutch with his finger in a hole in the sidewalk about a block away.
After a few days I finally walked up and asked why he always kept his finger in the hole.
He told me;
“If I take my finger out of the hole the earth will deflate and we’ll all fall off into space”
So much for global warming huh?
Mickey,
“I’m sorry, that was meant to be directed at you.”
Do you mean that wasn’t meant to be directed at me?
And likewise:
“But yea, we can just lock up everyone that bugs us.”
Please tell me you mean we can’t just lock up everyone…
If I’m reading you as you have literally written, then I doubt we come to a consensus.
I’m not sure who Helen Thomas is, but as for Code Pink… my brother served three tours in Iraq and may be going back for his fourth this spring. My friend Denver served 3 tours. My friend Todd died in Iraq during the first invasion.
I won’t sully Eric’s blog with what I think of Code Pink. I’m not sure I can post a polite, well worded, intelligent paragraph that doesn’t use those nastly swear words that Eric disdains.
Once again, sorry.
Yes, that “was not” meant for you.
“Please tell me you mean we can’t just lock up everyone…
”
I’m having an aversion to the letter “T”, looks like I’m on a roll here, maybe I should do the meds.
Looks like were on the same page when it comes to code pink.
I think we can come to a consensus on most everything except that I’m probably a little more dictative, autocratic, and less patient about it than you are. There is a wide spectrum where each case has its variations that need to be approached individually
Working with addicts and alky’s is mixed bag but the majority are mostly people who come from bad upbringings or are misguided and have the misfortune of having a genetically induced allergy of the body and disease of the mind mixed in with character traits coming from the life they lived that leaves a lot to be desired.
The first thing we have to get thru their heads is that they are not in control of anything at all at that point.
So you can probably imagine how we have to draw the line quick and firm once the intake is complete.
I’ve seen people that most would give up on without a second thought turn out to be some really cool people. And they’ve come to understand that no one should be a victim of their BS.
The difference is that they’ve humbled themselves to the point now that when they see the signs of trouble they get the help they need to stay on track.
Helen Thomas is about 105 years old, hates Bush and anything conservative, doesn’t like Israel and recently confirmed her lunacy by asking a reporter to name anyone who’s accused her of being bias and went on to say that in her 104 years of reporting she’s never once been accused of bias.
I believe she’s truly senile, no sarcasm, no exaggeration, nuts off her rocker, out to lunch batty.
Though I think our good host was just being facetious, it did bring up some intesting arguments.
I’ve been reading the comments above. A few points came to my mind…
1 – The guy with “dementia” – that’s not really a diagnosis. There’s something seriously wrong with that guy, like alzheimers, or some other progressive brain disease, or a serious brain injury. That guy needs medical help immediately.
2 – I don’t normally agree with anything the Scientologists have to say, but man ‘o man when it comes to medicating people for mental “diseases,” we have really got our priorities screwed up. We are the most unnecessarily over-medicated people on the planet. The number one prescription market is antidepressents. That’s insane – no pun intended. We have become a nation of emotional cowards, unable to deal with our kids, our emotions, our relationships. EManwhile, we dope ourselves up with pills and then have the unmitigated gall to lock people in jail for doing the same thing for themselves but without a prescription. Americans are a bunch of hypocritical morons.
3 – It just goes to show how important the social state really is to a civilized society and how conservatism is ruining America. Our prisons are chock full of people with real and imagined mental conditions who need treatment – not prison. If anything, prison just makes it all the worse for them and the rest of us. But it’s cheaper and easier to just leave them on the streets and lock ’em up when they get in our way. We are truly a selfish and inhumane society. Even when we had institutions, they were so poorly funded and monitored, they all ended up closed down and in the end all that was left of their legacy was Geraldo Rivera. We need a social safety net for these folks and until we grow up and realize that this would be worth the cost and in all our interests, the problem will continue to fester, and Big Pharma and the Prison Industrial Complex will continue to rape our wallets and cannibalize our society.
The other day I heard a conservative say something to the effect of “this isn’t like the Depression because there are no bread lines, no riots, no mass strikes, no people jumping off buildings, no communist uprising.” “Well, Duh!,” I thought. That’s because unlike in 1929 we now have Social Security, AFDC, Unemployment Insurance, Food Stamps, Medicare and Medicaid, the FDIC, and all those other social programs the conservatives want to destroy. If conservatives had their way say 25 years ago, and the economy tanked as it is today, we would see bread lines, and people jumping off buildings, and riots and so forth. The social safety net is an abosutely vital utility in a functional civilized progressive liberal society. We’re just too stupid to see that the mentally ill need that safety net too.
JMJ
You did say you or your company made a cold call, did you not?
And you’re asking for sympathy? That’s kind of insane, no?
As for the rest of your complaints, that’s what you get for living with other people.
You should only live with other people after vetting them, to not do so is insane.
Are you starting to see a pattern?
(just kidding).
http://www.DailyPUMA.com
” It just goes to show how important the social state really is to a civilized society and how conservatism is ruining America. ”
What a crock.
Socialism will ruin America, it has failed in the past.
If liberals had it there way everyone would be diagnosed with something just get them off the hook for whatever. If there is no diagnosis for an idiot, they’ll make something up.
And if you go back to the 30s during the depression and took a look at the way we treated mentally ill people you wouldnt say half the garbage you said about why were not knocking ourselves off today and how much the field has improved.
Mental illness victims were just locked up or subjected to radical electroshocks and mindnumbing drugs and never really tended to any other way.
Pushing the entitlements you say are the reason were not offing ourselves is just another way to establish wealth redistribution.
It wasnt because we had no SS or food stamps, FICA or any of that crap. Its because mental illness was not even considered a disease ! And there was no where for a suicidle lunatic to go, Get it ?
“Hey ! if everyone just pools all their goods we’ll all be happy.”
On one hand you say we need to take responsability and then you turn around and say that we should have a collective socialist state to fall on instead.
Well, I know for a fact that half the guys I met in the hole wouldnt be there if they just accepted the fact earlier on that personal accountability would of kept them out of the hole.
ridiculous.
Micky, I don’t even know why you’re a conservative. As far as I know, you’re not rich, you’re not an evangelical fanatic, and you’re not a gun nut. You’re the type of concervative I can never figure out. I mean, I know why Eric’s a copservative – he’s a Likudian Zionist and a Wall Streeter (albethey of the California varieties). Not that there’s anything wrong with being pro-Likud or making money in finance, but that’s just where his interests are. So, it makes sense that he’s a Republican. He’s really not even all that conservative. He’s a Neocon. In Europe, they call them Neoliberals – “liberal” being in the classical sense of the word. That’s why he so strongly supported Giuliani for president. Giuliani once even ran as a “Liberal Republican” – and won! I bet he’s the last one that did that! But you – you I can’t figure out. I think you’re just an old fashioned type of person, a person who longs for simpler days of yore that never really even existed. Eh, I don’t know.
I agree with you that most “liberals” are all too easily ready to medicate everyone for everything under the sun. They really annoy the %$#@ out of me with that nonsense too. I hate it. Especially mainstream Democrats. They just seem to believe the world would be a perect place if we all took Prozac and Ridilin. That’s why Big Pharma loves them just as much as the GOP. The Dems are the customers and the GOP are the funders. And both mainstream Dems and GOPers just love the Police State. Their answer for everyone who behaves as they don’t like – lock ’em up, even if it’s none of their business at all. now we have prison full of self-medicating loonies who’s only crime is trying to get a little peace of mind without a prescription.
There’s another conundrum with that mental illness issue – if we did set up a social safety net for these folks, it could be flooded with people who don’t have anything really wrong with them at all. It’s the same problem we have with physical healthcare today – all those uninsured people running to the ER every time they catch a head cold. It’s a ridiculously expensive mess. If they had public GP’s to visit, they could be dissuaded from overreacting to every little bug. And then there’s the profiteering drug companies, doling out antibiotics like Pez to any idiot with a runny nose, and now we have super-resistant bacteria running amok, killing people, and infecting hospital patients in mass numbers, who then sue the hospitals, who then have to raise their rates to pay for their higher malpractice premiums, and on and on and on.
I fear America may be suffering from terminal stupidity, and. I don’t think there’s any cure for that particular ailment.
JMJ
JMJ’
” You’re the type of conservative I can never figure out.”
Because I’m an independent thinker, believe it or not. And some lemming like the masses who automatically support something like global warming or abortion.
But my platform is basic conservatism. Small government, capitalism, ethics based on Judeo Christian beliefs and kicking the crap out of my enemies.
I don’t even really care for all these stupid labels people take on describing what party their with or what breed of what and what quirks and variations there are.
I just happen to find myself defending conservatives most of the time because they just make more sense and don’t contradict themselves half as much.
I am comfortable, I own a house worth a little more than 1/2 a million, own my own business, don’t have a gun because I’m a convicted felon, and cant quite come to swallow some of the interpretations written in the bible by men with flaws, emotions and bias, nor do I care for a pack mentality or collectives/communes. I take a lot of my philosophy from Chinese Kempo, the oldest grandaddy of all martial arts that teach’s singularity, dependence on the self and that there can be no collective unless you have the individual first. In 30 years of study I’ve come to the point where I can peel and slice a 100 lb. bag of onions each slice a 1/4 inch thick blindfolded in 20 minutes.
Without cutting myself. I can also stick that knife in your forehead from 50 ft. away. Gimme a handful of knives and who needs a gun ?
So as you can see I’m very independent which is a cornerstone of individualism which is one main ingredient in conservatism.
My hair is down to my a$$, I have a stereo that gets complaints from a block away, I make all my own meals from scratch, I swear every chance I get.
Maybe Ted Nugent and I are long separated twins, who knows.
I don’t have a big problem with people using drugs as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone or cost anyone.
I do have a problem with the money involved in illegal trafficking. That’s were the violence comes from.
People don’t shoot each other over their next hit of pot. But they do shoot each other over the cost of it.
Simple possession should be ignored. But the problem is the crimes committed to obtain those drugs.
I have a long remedy that involves taxation,tariffs, treatment, and legalization that I wont get into here.
In my experiences with addicts and alcoholics, many who are suffering many of the same mental illnesses we see people with who aren’t addicts seem to do well when they start admitting the character defects that led to the state of mind they were in in the first place.
Much like for myself how I explained to Hauk above.
Me;
” don’t do any drugs at all to help my imbalances, twice now I tried to off myself as a result of them , Paxil was one, like I said, its a “practice”. I refuse to be the institutions Guinea Pig.
A lifestyle change that focuses on the positive and knowing my place and limitations seems to work well.
Instead of fighting my quirks and anger I embrace them as gifts and put thought to them so they can be attributes.”
Don’t get me wrong, many people need these drugs, BADLY.
But far too many are just taking the easy way out instead of doing the hard work and taking a sincere honest hard look at themselves.
These are usually the kind of people who want the whole world to change or adapt to them.
They’ll drive themselves nuts instead of realizing that its much easier to just change yourself a little.
So what they do is get medicated so they can deal with the anger they bring upon themselves everyday.
I’m sure you’ve heard me say before that its easier for me to understand everyone else than it is to get the whole world to understand me.
mickey2 sardonically said
……..”Hey ! if everyone just pools all their goods we’ll all be happy.”
when I was in the fifth or sixth grade and it was lunch time, I used to say to my best friend, “Lets pool our money…(then I would pause for dramatic effect)…and get NOTHING!
Really it doesnt take a genius to understand the concept of socialism and its attractiveness when you have as many people coming upon hard times as we do now.
Everyone is all about keeping the individuals wealth except when they lose it. Thats when these closet liberals parading as cons come out and start eyeballing the other guys stash.
If you can convince enough people that its worse than it is it could win you an election.
I think the only reason Obama and Pelosi have condoms on the bill is because they know that in about year after all this money has been pee’d away its not going to be a good time to add to or start a family.
“…Christian beliefs and kicking the crap out of my enemies.”
LOL! Oh Micky, you really make me laugh sometimes. I’ve known Voo Doo practicioners who were more Christian than you.
“I am comfortable, I own a house worth a little more than 1/2 a million, own my own business,…”
Well, that explains it! You qualify. Here’s your lapel pin. You may now enter the Republican Room – but you’ll have to sit in the Acolyte Section.
“People don’t shoot each other over their next hit of pot. But they do shoot each other over the cost of it.”
Micky they only cost they shoot each other over is the prison terms. And without the prison terms, the costs wouldn’t be nearly as high. Illicit drugs are expensive because they carry a high Risk Fee. Decriminalization would end the violence, save the taxpayors a fortune, put our law enforcement priorities where they belong (ya’ know, on crime with actual victims), and free up millions of citizens to lead productive lives, if just a little high while pursuing it. Now, of course, decriminalization shouldn’t mean complete legalization. We shouldn’t legalize things like heroine and cocaine. But we should be treating addicts, fining dealers, and ENFORCING THE BORDERS. As it is now, we do nothing, really, but make violence and ruin lives even further.
It’s like the immigration issue. We try to stop an unstoppable flood of immigrants, who find endless customers for their work and wares here, but we could easily stem that flood if we just had realistic legal immigration quotas, a functional and fully funded INS, and a truly Christian relationship with our neighbors to the South (rather than a profiteering colonialist relationship). Meanwhile, drug smugglers pour through the borders mixed among the regular workers and we’re stuck trying to weed (no pun intended) through all the worker bees to catch the killer bees just as our drug interdictors have to weed (pun intended) through all the pot smugglers to find the cocaine and heroine smugglers. And then, even when we’re relatively sucessful, our own people simply rig their garages up to make their own pot and methamphetamines and sell them here without having to wade accross the Rio Grande.
The Drug War, like the War on Illegal Immigration is a total, complete, utter, obvious, stupid failure. But America is the land of the brick wall with the head prints all over it.
It’s funny about the antidepressents – I read recently that antidepressent sales were down 29% last year – why? Because people couldn’t afford them. If they were really all that necessary, sales wouldn’t be down that much. Turns out a real economic depression trumps an imagined depressive disorder every time.
I mean, look – people get depressed. It’s normal. It’s healthy. It’s your brain telling you that something isn’t going well. It’s normal and healthy to get depressed when you lose your job, or a love one dies, or your chosen career turns out to be nothing more than an ulcer inducer. If things aren’t going well for you, it’s normal and healthy to get depressed. And depression is your brain telling you to try something different – to stop doing whatever you’re doing that’s making you depressed and try something else that doesn’t. It’s like physical pain – “Hey, man hand burns! Maybe I should remove it from this flame!” Depression tells you to get your brain away from the flame. When you bury your depression with meds, you interupt the important communication from the brain that’s trying to inform you that you’re doing something stupid and really need to stop. This addiction Americans have to antidepressents is going to kill us. We’re going to blithely walk off a cliff because we’ve stifled our brains ability to yell out, “Hey, stupid! Look out for that cliff!”
Again, I really think America is in serious and irreversible decline. We have become one extremely stupid people.
JMJ
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/01/tokyo-prepares-to-fight-somali-pirates.html
What do Somali Pirates – Somali Chew Khat, Mexico Narco State, and
Taliban in Pakistan – funded by Poppy Crop in Afghanistan have in
common? Drug Trafficking?
Will Mexico’s Government fail – collapse we can’t afford to let them collapse. President Hugo Chavez, remember he likes to chew coco leaves…would love to fill that vacuum. Would our Country’s border security become a priority then?
A German Gas Tanker has been hijacked by Somali pirates.
Border and Port Security NO CHANGE!
Micky they only cost they shoot each other over is the prison terms.”
You’re not half as qualified to talk on this subject as I am.
if you smoke a joint you’re a lot less likely to shoot someone than if they owe you 2000.00
“Decriminalization would end the violence,”
Absolutely wrong.
Taking it out of the hands of the cartels and dealers would end the violence.
And decriminalized or not, people still do commit crimes to support habits.
Legalization does nothing to stop addiction.
I have a feeling you weren’t running kilos of blow across the border like I was in San Diego for 8 years.
Wake up.
“We try to stop an unstoppable flood of immigrants,”
BS, its stoppable, ask N. Korea.
And please, don’t insult my intelligence and go off on a rant how then we would be acting like our enemies.
If a broke a$$ country like N. Korea can seal its borders so can we.
Homegrown’s are a freckle on the a$$ of the problem.
As far as the depression thing goes I think I’ll agree with you that most people don’t know the difference between just being bummed out is and what depression really is.
“LOL! Oh Micky, you really make me laugh sometimes. I’ve known Voo Doo practicioners who were more Christian than you.”
What is it with liberals who think that Christians need to be milktoast pu$$ies ? Only so they can say were hypocrites when we defend ourselves ?
Ridiculous, but predictable.
“Well, that explains it! You qualify. Here’s your lapel pin. You may now enter the Republican Room – but you’ll have to sit in the Acolyte Section.”
Don’t get too excited about my house.
Real estate is nuckin futs in Hawaii, I just got lucky, only paid 175 for it 10 years ago. New zoning and new projects legislation had a big hand in it being what its worth today.
In the last 30 years or so I haven’t set foot in a church other than to drop off food and once gave a testimonial for my mother in law on mothers day.
Which actually created more tension than anything because my inlaws and wife have heard me speak at AA meetings. I make Lenny Bruce and Chris Rock sound like Billy Graham. I actually spoke for a whole half hour without swearing. I don’t know if people were crying out of relief or because what I said was so touching.
Walking home from a local strip mall, I happen to meet a long time acquaintence. He said, “Let’s go to the (nearby) McDonalds, I want to tell you something”.
At McDonalds, he told me to sit down and prepare for the worst. Now, this acquaintence, was in Vietnam,,,and assigned to the Roc Troops (Korean division), in Da Nang and elsewhere in the north of the country during the fighting. He had seen it all, and is not an excitable person seeing or experiencing violence.
Well apparently, while talking to his landord, they both had heard shots coming
from down the hallway. Not really thinking, they went to the area where the shots had been fired (he recognized them as gunshots).
Stretched halfway into an apartment and into the hall, was the building
maintenace man..with arms outstretched, as if pleading to stop shooting.
Over him was a tenent, tall in stature, heavyset,possible a Vietnam War Vet, with a
45.
Two more shots were fired into the now lifeless and hapless maintenance man., who recently had become a father.
I had met the maintenance man, over a 15 year period. Apparently he
serviced many buildings. He was a real nice guy..polite, a good Catholic,
a hard working family man, always ready to go the extra mile. He had his future planned, perhaps someday to own his own buildings. He was good at his craft, a general overall handyman.
But I had to ask myself, why was this obviously tense and psychotic individual not treated on a regular basis? Did he have a history of intimidating people, or abusing them? Why suddently, did this otherwise
quiet, loner, crack? Was he on medication?
It will be most interesting in the months to come to find out exactly why?
My guess, liberals in the psychiatric profession will say it’s due to
PTS. (38 years after leaving Vietnam).
Well, now it’s too late for this poor worker, for excuses and explanations
and all the whys?
When I heard the sirens I should have known that something had happened down the block. But then again, I hear sirens constantly.
It goes with the neighborhood I guess.
Yea Dav, I had a buddy in Santa Ana who was a Nam vet that scared me whenever he would drink. Which is hard to do.
Dave, just like me, was a practicing alky at the time. He was the typical picture of the red white and blue overweight biker type and could pee across the street from one curb hitting the other.
News Years eve the neighbors were firing off a gun and good ole Dave decided they were Goops (no offense, thats what he called them, my first love was Vietnamese) and even though he wasnt armed himself he started calling them out. It was actually Mexican s doing the shooting whom didnt get a chance to see who was calling them every name in the book because I did still have enough presence of mind to get him in the house.
Dave also couldnt go more than a mile or so from the house without breaking into a full blown panic/anxiety attack.
I decided one day that I would take him to Huntington beach so the guy could relax. Sad to say we never made it there and I had to clean the passenger seat in my car when we got back.
Help was available thru the VA but the problem was getting him to take it. This was about 25 years ago during a period of my life where I could care less what anyone elses problems were and didnt have a clue how I could of helped him. Today looking back I feel bad and have no idea what happened to Dave.
The way things were going I fear the worst.