CARRY ME HOME TO OL' VIRGINNIE 4/22/07

I happened to be in Denver the other day cabbing it to the no-tell motel after a meeting of Narcotics Anonymous. The cab driver decided that he would talk to me about the shootings that happened in Virginia. Cab driver has four sons, two of them are in college. One of them is in Virginia but not in THAT place. Cab driver went on at length about gun safety and teaching his boys to be responsible about guns. It sounds rather dreadful in the retelling but it really wasn't. The conversation I found to be more enjoyable than downtown Denver was during rush hour.

There are some things about law and mental hygiene law [nope, not laws for those who like to read or look at porn] in particular that folks do not know, do not understand, or haven't had to know or understand. The disclaimer goes like this: I am not a lawyer and you are a jackass if you are relying upon this blog for legal advice. End of disclaimer. "The law is an ass." I must admit here that I do not recall who said it first but I sure wish I had. Anyone who doesn't agree is living in a different universe than the one I've had to deal with my whole life. Or perhaps they just disagree and that's cool too.

The young man who shot up all those students and then died too was hospitalized for his mental difficulties in 2005. Here is something which the cab driver did not know and maybe some of you don't either. If the young man admitted himself-- signed himself in-- then he can truthfully answer "no" on any sort of application which asks if one was ever committed. Most of us mental nutcases, whether we've ever been on any sort of mental hell unit or not, are aware that being 2P'ed [signed in forcibly by a physician and a physician crony physician] is the absolute worst thing one can do in terms of preservation of any sort of human rights. Thus most of us try very very hard to remember that when being threatened with a 2P, it is better to yield pen in hand and sign ourselves in. Under a 2P, a mental health sort of kangaroo court has to do a review every so many hours-- it might be 72 and then in decreasing frequencies-- in order for the hospital to maintain its' hold. It is easier to get out of a mental hospital if we have signed ourselves in-- even A.M.A.
That stands for against medical advice. I agree it is somewhat ludicrous to speak about human rights on a nutward but bear with me here.

So the young man who signed himself in has no proof of disordered thinking when he shows up at the gun shop or wherever to buy his own personal weapon of mass destruction. Fact is, as long as we weren't ever 2P'ed [and maybe sometimes if we were], there is no flashing light following us around screaming, "Don't sell that moron a gun." Maybe we can thank the lawyers for that one or at least thank the idiots at the ACLU who would be comfortable with someone like me having access to a gun, but I digress.

Furthermore, as far as good to excellent mental hell treatment, that is in itself an oxymoron. We do not know what good to excellent mental hell treatment is. Mental hell treatment-- counseling in particular-- does not have a gold standard of care. There is no scientific validity measure attached to talk therapy. People like to talk about talk therapy because somehow it seems more humane than shoveling psychotropics down the throats of those whose lives are unfixable any other way. There is no evidence that counseling works. There is evidence that for various specific conditions the pills do work.

We know for example that someone who has genuine bipolar disorder I [useta be manic depression] has an excellent chance of medicine actually working. We also know that someone who has genuine bipolar disorder I who is unmedicated runs a seriously high risk of that disorder becoming worse, period. [It's all on Medscape, folks.] And we know that pills and combinations of pills do not work well at all for the serious personality disorders that people come down with [assuming that the diagnosis is accurate and not based upon therapist prejudice]. We know that folks with traumatic brain injury traditionally need more of the psychotropic variety of medicine and less of some other classes. And so on.

Here is some really bad news. Read it several times until it sinks in. Ready?
Mental health professionals are notoriously BAD at predicting who
is a danger to society and who isn't.
The F.B.I. people are talking to serial killers and some of them are writing books and it is all fascinating but unless you are a serial killer behind bars, ain't no one really knowing how to look for you before you actually kill anyone. Same goes for kids shooting other kids in school.

Here are some of my own suggestions:
(1). Dump the insanity defense totally. If you are going to say, "I did it but I am nuts" or "I did it but I am nuts and therefore not responsible for my self" or "I did it cuz I am nuts and I don't know when or if I will do it again" etc., then you deserve to be locked up away from society, period. I personally don't care if they lock you up in a mental hospital or in a prison. Harsh? Too bad.
Equal rights are not special rights. If we truly believe that we the mental nutcases deserve the same civil rights as other civils, then we have to be willing to accept the same consequences for bad behavior that everyone else gets to have. Anything less is burrsit.

(2). Anyone who has ever been actively suicidal should not own a gun for any reason. [For exceptions, see number five].

(3). Anyone who has symptoms of personality disorders should not own a gun for any reason. [For exceptions, see number five].

(4). Anyone who has ever experienced a genuine psychotic state should not own a gun for any reason. [For exceptions, see number five].

(5). For exceptions: Let the shrinks sign off on the pieces of paper giving us permission to own and use firearms. And let them share in the responsibility if we make any bad things happen during our handling of a firearm.
Risk-taking is risky. Shrinks are notoriously bad at predicting who is a long-term risk to society. Fine them real money for every person that we kill [including ourselves] with our guns and give that money to the families of the victims. Here's a prediction of my own: No shrink will agree to sign that piece of paper for their patients if their best shrink misjudgment will cost them shrink money. Off the wall? Tough. If I am that off the wall, then why are you still reading this?

radical sapphoq

SO WHAT DID HAPPEN TO BUILDING SEVEN? 4/14/07

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7866929448192753501
provides one "explanation." Problem is that the stuff is slipshod, uh, reckless with the truth as my dead friend Lewis useta say. Over in Rosie O'Donnell's version of the universe, she is denying that she accused the President of causing 9/11. [You have to scroll past almost all of the bad poem in order to find it.]

So what did happen to building 7?
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/911myths/4213805.html

I have no great love for Rosie O'Donnell. I don't care if she is a lesbian. [Am I supposed to like her because she is part of THE community??? She is no part of mine]. Nor do I care about the stuff she does for kids.
Her words broken up into disjointed lines at the beginning of each of her blogs are annoying.
No publisher in their right mind would publish that rot from Jo K. Citizen.
Because Rosie wrote them, I bet they will appear in a book.
And people will buy it.
How stupid is that?

About as stupid as most of the "conspiracy theories" floating around the news media these days.

radical sapphoq

p.s. I don't care about Imus either.
But that whole racism-in-public vs. racism-in-private this is a whole
nother blog.

A DAY IN LIFE by Mare

I wrote this as if I was our daughter..and I just wanted to share. Spike feel feel to use if you would like. ~Mare

She wakes up to get ready for school like everyone else her ages does. She takes a shower, pets her cat, eats breakfast and gets ready for her day, just like everyone else does. She begins her day reading a book, and tells herself she is going to have a good day.
Her parents get up get ready to take her to school. She is a good teen-ager she stays out of trouble she is a only child so figuring things out comes first hand for her, almost like the oldest child. Her parents drop her off at school and hold up traffic tell her to have a good day and watch her all the way to the door to make sure she makes it in the school, as most parents just drop off their child and drive away as the day is too busy for them.
The day goes on and noone wants to partner with her she is called a "Lesbian" knowing she isn't they are just calling her that because her parents are. She pretends it doesn't bother her and the next class comes around and it happens again..Her mind shuts down and the emotions begin to fill and the feeling is too much. She begins to cry and then gets upset with herself because they are only words and she knows her parents love her and their parents are probably never around to tell the difference in their day, but "I can only take so much" her mind explodes with emotion and what started off as telling herself "I am going to have a good day" begins the day from hell.
She comes home from school and her parents know the look on her face there is something wrong and she doesn't want to appear weak or that she is ashamed of them, she doesn't talk about and her parents keep at her because they know and they care. She tells them ever so quietly and like it was no big deal. Her parents know better they know just what to ask and just what to say. Her parents walk her through some scenario to help her along for the next time around.
Her parents worry that the words will lead to attacks which will lead to other things all because two people love one another and have raised a child into this world. Children can be mean no matter if you come from a poor family, rich family, two moms, two dads, have glasses, or braces. Not that it makes it right but there needs to be something that can rest her parents from worrying, and her from having to go through the harassment.
They talk and hug and have dinner. They may go for a walk or watch a movie, She feels better when she is at home and hates when she has to get ready for bed for the new day is about to begin again and telling herself she is going to have a good day. ~Mare

posted by sapphoq on behalf of Mare

THE OTHER 4/2/07

Customer service is dead. There is vast evidence of its' demise on the internet. Examining the Blogger site in order to locate the "report abuse form" is daunting. So too is the policy behind it: Blogspot will not participate in the shutting down of sites which are defamatory in nature, yet will help the Indian government block objectionable content. The individual pales in comparison to the perceived importance of political entities.

Customer service is dead. Leaving electronica, one only has to visit physician discussion boards briefly to realize that what cannot be treated adequately [i.e. pain] is lumped into a vast world of blaming the patient [i.e. drug-seeking]. In my own life, one pain specialist refused to diagnose my numerous painful trigger points as fibromyalgia. "Fibromyalgia is a life style," he told me. He sent me off to aquatherapy where a physical therapist enlightened me on the play of words involved.

Then there is the attitude of many folks regarding disability. Physician discussion boards are a wonderful instrument of learning how patients who are disabled are viewed. Some won't fill out forms dealing with getting benefits for disability; others charge for them. A few will dump the patient [i.e. refer them to someone else; or passing the buck]. People in the generic population will also make comments. If ya don't "look" disabled, it is assumed that you can get and keep a job. Idle loafing, collecting the "free" money, living at or below poverty level are all great motivators [NOT].

Community is slowly dieing. One only has to briefly witness the antics of narcissistic or psychopathic bullies to understand this on a gut level. Whether the bully is a government or is found in the corporate boardroom, in academia, or on the world wide web, again we have become tainted with the fear of Otherness.

To a service provider, we all have become The Other. To the terminally healthy, anyone who is "different" is The Other. To the cowardly bully or the fundamentalist whose aim is to obliterate freedom of community and of self-determination, The Other is suspect. In a quest for sameness in an increasingly complex and diverse universe, xenophobia has become rampant. Internalizing these attitudes of The Other causes us to hate ourselves. That is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all.

Customer service is dead. Community is slowly dieing. Shunning and pushing The Other away is certain death. Embracing The Other reminds us that our basic humanity can outweigh the brute force of shutting each other [and ourselves] out of the richness of intradependency.

radical sapphoq