Psychiatrists Treat Illnesses They Cause
What is missing from this questionable academic study is the number of students who considered suicide ONLY after taking anti depressants. Even the drug-company-friendly FDA places a Black Box warning on anti depressants. In addition no one knows the effects on humans, of a combination of drugs a so-called drug cocktail. Psychiatrists love to prescribe such cocktails, hoping it will stop the offensive speech or behavior. So in some cases we know that drug companies and psychiatrists cause suicidal thoughts in their patients. Why should anyone listen to them?
Replies were posted, and my replies follow.
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Helen Yu ’12 commented that while MHS and Room 13—a peer-to-peer counseling service that operates under UHS supervision—provide accessible and highly confidential help, not all students are aware of these services, and many are simply unwilling to go.
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jtr03c [Replied April 27, 2009]
menckenlite, the concern for the effectiveness and side effects of any medication, pscyhotropic or otherwise, is a critical issue. Every scientific limitation. Each study can not focus on every topic or issue. Good science focuses on a particular issue in-depth so that methods can be repeated. Here, the article focuses on the epidemiology and seriousness of suicidality among college students not double-blind controlled studies of antidepressants. Suicide and murder-suicide behaviors are critical social and medical issues. For the understanding and knowledge of the efficacy and safety of medication, I would prefer seeking professional opinion over street opinions. Unfortunately, the stigma surrounding treatment of mental illness and living with mental illness itself inhibits acceptance of treatment and hence the compliance with taking psychotropic medications is extremely poor outside of controlled studies.
Furthermore, we could ask the question, "Why should anyone trust anybody?" My best advice would be to seek treatment only with the physician you trust. I think the best treatment comes from a psychiatrist who understands you and is an advocate of your health along every aspect. Cardiologists and physicians from every speciatly treat disease using multidrug regimens, which you refer to as "cocktails". Medicine is a science and research based profession as much as it is a clinical profession. That being said, there is no substitute for years of experience and clinical training to advance decision making on a patient-by-patient basis. Patients, after all, are individuals and require individualized treatments.
Best of luck. Please consider reading more about mental illness at http://www.nami.org/ or http://www.nmha.org/. Many patients are successfully and happily treated, living enriching lives despite having a mental illness (please read*). Some patients are not satisfied. Whatever the reason for poor treatment results, we must strive for the best treatments and advance research in this field, NOT ABANDON our efforts.
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[My response] April 27, 2009
NAMI is a deep pocketed lobbyist funded by the drug industry that promotes drug treatment. Conformist attitudes among academics trust credentials. But credentials do not necessarily bring integrity. We've seen instances of compromised Harvard academics who take millions from the drug industry (Joe Biederman, Fred Goodwin recently) to promote drugs. Scientific journals were compromised by drug companies who pay prominent academics to sign articles about flawed research by the drug companies. In 1890 Louis Pasteur (not a doctor) knew washing hands prevented passing bacteria from one patient to another. The medical profession ridiculed him. Today washing hands is still a problem among professionals with credentials.
My question is why seek treatment? If psychiatrists treat symptoms with no pathology to show (only psychiatrists can see the illnesses they treat), who needs psychiatry at all besides the drug industry? You say medicine is a science. But psychiatry is personal opinion masquerading as science. Cardiology can show a pathology. Drug cocktails can kill. No doctor knows what they can do to a humans. Some entries in Merck's explain the dangers. But the doctors prescribe them anyway. Please read about the dangers of psychiatry at cchr.org. Or read some of Thomas Szasz'z, Peter Breggin's Fred Baughman's books about the fraudulent boondoggle in which you believe.
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jtr03c April 27, 2009
Interesting opinion.
Mechanics often see things wrong with my car that I can not see due to expertise and training. Again, I would not trust any mechanic, nor would I say that all mechanics are perfect or ethically motivated in their profession. You must seek treatment from someone you trust. Do not throw out the baby with the bath water.
What is the cause of schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, etc. in your opinion? What is the cause of mental retardation or is this not a reality in your opinion? What about addictions treatment? To make a statement that psychiatry (the entire profession, body of research, treatment successes, etc.) and everything about mental illness is a hoax is extremely generalizing, polarizing, and essentially unhelpful to patients who know that their mental illness is real, when you believe that mental illness is fantasy.
The goal of a real psychiatrist is to treat patients and improve quality of health. Psychiatrists who do not hold true to this standard are truly a shame to the profession. Psychiatrists also treat with psychotherapy and alternative therapies, not just coporate drug company agendas.
P.S. I was a student of Dr. Beer's, Merck's editor-in-chief.
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menckenlite April 27, 2009
How are psychiatrists different from mechanics or lawyers or politicians? Your heroes claim to be human but expect others to believe that they are different from all the rest. They act as if their genes have been cleansed of mendacity, greed and sadism. They predict the future!!!! They claim moral superiority and superior knowledge of humans. What to they know that ordinary civilians do not? I read about how depraved they are more and more. Psychiatric illnesses are created by consensus. There is no evidence of any psychiatric illness other than the claims of psychiatrists. "Mental retardation" went out about a decade ago. Please update your terminology to reflect respect for persons with developmental disabilities. Addictions are a boondoggle of psychiatry and the human services industrial complex. Big taxpayer funded business. No one is forced to take recreational drugs or alcohol or cigarettes. People are forced by the police power of the state to accept toxic psychiatric drugs into their bodies. Why is this a police matter? You believe that psychiatry is real. You are entitled to your belief. Read Robert Whitaker's (Cambridge resident) book, "Mad in America" for many essays about your belief system. I do not force my belief on you. But the psychiatric industry, and their drug company bankers, through their lapdogs in the legislature force their beliefs and businesses on others. Provide evidence that psychiatric illness has a pathology. Show physical evidence of mental illness. You say, "patients [. . .] know that their mental illness is real." Beliefs of mental patients are evidence? You say "The goal of a real psychiatrist is to treat patients and improve quality of health." Oh? Have you ever read the oaths of office of politicians, lawyers and police? How closely do they come to perform that to which they swear? I agree, psychiatrists are shameful. But they have no shame. They are psychopaths abusing humans in the name of good. You do not have to emphasize that you admire credentials. That is obvious. Regarding who to believe, common sense teaches to base trust on past performance with no guarantee of future reliability.
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jtr03c April 27, 2009
How can psychiatrists be "psychopaths" when you do not believe that psychiatric illness exists?
Calling someone a "retard" or "retarded" is politically incorrect. However, the term "mental retardation" is not politically incorrrect.
"Mental retardation is a generalized disorder, characterized by subaverage cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors with onset before the age of 18. Once focused almost entirely on cognition, the definition now includes both a component relating to mental functioning and one relating to the individual's functional skills in their environment."
It is not shameful to have mental retardation. It is shameful to think the former.
P.S. Is this Tom Cruise?
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menckenlite April 27, 2009
You need to read your own question in order to answer it. I am glad that you have your own special list of what is politically correct. Good for you. Is this Joe Biederman?
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jtr03c April 28, 2009
Believe it or not, I really do not have a special list of what is P.C. Using a label like "psychopath" in a derogatory sense undermines the positive movement in helping persons living with mental illness.
I would recommend volunteering some time helping the mentally ill and homeless in order to familiarize yourself with the impact of mental illness with the approach of an open mind. Also, please watch PBS Frontline April 28, 2009 for the special titled "The Released".
First, do you believe that someone can be depressed so severely to the point of disability? Second, if the answer is yes, what treatment would you recommend or approach to helping this person would be?
Yes, I am not Joe.
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Menckenlite April 28, 2009
Psychopath: "A person with a personality disorder, esp. one manifested in aggressively anti social behavior." It is a person not an illness. Psychiatry in prisons is not voluntary. The courts use psychiatry as a form of punishment. Treatment is punishment in the topsy turvy world of psychiatry. Was Humpty Dumpty a psychiatrist? Why do people with problems go to psychiatrists? Why do they put their parents in nursing homes? Why are social problems psychiatric? When did having a feeling, an emotion become a mental illness? It is about business. Is Obama giving stimulus funds to drug companies? Lawyers and doctors earn their living from human suffering. If they have relaxed rectitude they exploit vulnerable persons. You mention disability. Do Constitutional Rights apply to persons with disabilities? A depressed person can lie down and cry for weeks, months, years. Or he can eat ice cream, cake and pizza, and watch Marx Brothers movies. Or he can spend time with his friends. It all depends on the kind of person. Or he can get drugs from a psychiatrist. They may increase his self esteem and make him suicidal. Lots of options Cambridge. You "recommend" helping the homeless. Do you know how much taxpayer money is appropriated for homelessness? Do you know how much is spent on academic consultants who write papers on how to solve the problem? Providing for homeless persons is a business. Taxpayers fund psychiatric drugs for homeless persons but have no money for housing them. What special interest arranged that priority?
Link to two-minute video clip about the difference between disease and psychiatric illness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3JQ8OVHVWA&feature=channel_page
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Link to a story about US Sen. Grassley's investigation of NAMI and the money it gets from drug corporations.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a4V6UEpXf_mY
Bloomberg News
6 April 2009
Grassley Probes Financing of Advocacy Group for Mental Health
By Nicole Gaouette
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington
at ngaouette@bloomberg.net.
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jtr03c wrote April 28, 2009
I meant that you should personally volunteer in a mental health facility or homeless shelter to get first-hand experience. To live disconnected from the real experience as you browse the www for support of your ideals is really a loss.
True. Homelessness is largely a problem resulting from mental illness; however, many people find themselves in unfortunate financial situations despite having a previously history of no mental illness. Psychologists, by enlarge (depending on state legislature), treat mental illness without medications. Do you feel that their definitions of mental disorders are irrelevant as well since they too are using the same criteria.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/takeonestep/depression/video-ch_01.html
Mental illness is only illness when it impairs an individual to an extent to care for self or become a danger to self or others. For example, delirium and dementia are common mental disorders which can be medical emergenices threatening fatality (i.e. delirium) or cause one to be dangerous to self by forgetting to take medications for diabetes, forgetting their location or family, etc. (i.e. dementia).
Your agenda is to wipe out psychiatry, psychology, social science, and disembowel the notion of mental illness. How does this help individuals suffering and actively SEEKING help on their own? Who would you refer patients suffering with mental illness when they seek help? How would you prefer treating depression and panic attacks? How would you treat a combative and agitated 70 year old male who just came out of surgery for colon tumor resection? Would you let him walk out of the hospital with extreme risk of post-op infection and lack of medical care?
You are ignoring so many critical issues that it is rediculous! According to your health policy, a patient would walk up to a doctor's office saying, "I'm depressed and suicidal. Please help me." Your recommended response, "Depression and suicide are normal parts of life. Please leave the office. I have nothing to offer you except drugs that will destroy your life. Have a nice day." To let a patient just walk out without supportive treatment creates massive legal liability, and in the event of suicide the non-treating physician obviously becomes the failing party in ignoring the PATIENT'S complaint and request for help.
The drug company is not the patient. Drug companies are essential for the creation of life-saving medications. How else do you recommend medications be developed? By magic?
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Menckenlite April 28, 2009
Thanks for your career suggestions. My ideas come from participating in government watching as the politicians do what you think I do. You may want to take your own advice to learn what self serving elected officials do with taxpayer money and what they say about homeless people. Talk about living in a psychiatric bubble?!? You broadcast the psychiatric conformist business position about homelessness with no connection to reality. PBS is a taxpayer funded cheerleader for the drug industry. I am aware of how effective the PR industry is promoting drugs and psychiatry. It began with Edward Bernays a nephew of Sigmund Freud. You act as if drugs help people with no adverse effects. Psychiatrists kill and encourage others to kill babies. Even the drug pusher psychiatrists admit that they do not know what the drugs will do and try different combos using humans for experiments. My health policy is to end the abuses of psychiatry. You are in denial about that or you are Joe Biederman's PR flack, sometimes called useful idiots. Drug companies are essential to the profits of their stockholders. That is the legal mission of drug companies contrary to your fantasy. Drug companies with academic researchers develop drugs with taxpayer funds on tax exempt property and prevent the taxpayer from enjoying the financial benefits.
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jtr03c April 29, 2009
Suicide is a critical issue. Depression does not respect boundaries of race, gender, or income. You must have proof and data to support claims that antidepressant treatment and psychotherapy increase suicide as opposed to placebo. Furthermore, mental health professionals treat patients who are often times suicidal to begin with and, hence, at a higher risk for suicidal behaviors. 300-400 physicians commit suicide in the U.S. each year. A large part for suicide among medical professionals results from the stigma associated with getting appropriate treatment--stigma which is promoted at the expense of patient health by extremist organizations like cchr. I am thankful for your imput as I was participating in this debate so that I may further understand your perspectives and the proposed alternatives to treatment of mental illness in the philosphical absence of psychiatry and psychology. At this stage, I am not convinced that witholding treatment is the best alternative.
Okay, I will answer some of your questions in the hope that you will answer the ones from this excerpt: "Your agenda is to wipe out psychiatry, psychology, social science, and disembowel the notion of mental illness. How does this help individuals suffering and actively SEEKING help on their own? Who would you refer patients suffering with mental illness when they seek help? How would you prefer treating depression and panic attacks? How would you treat a combative and agitated 70 year old male who just came out of surgery for colon tumor resection? Would you let him walk out of the hospital with extreme risk of post-op infection and lack of medical care?"
1. Was Humpty Dumpty a psychiatrist? I don't know, but I think he was a fictional character.
2. Why do people with problems go to psychiatrists? The reasons/motivations are vast as the number of different illnesses, types of practice settings, and many other variables. A 50 year old male recently divorced with a history of depression may convince himself to seek help to cope with increased stressors which have lowered his threshold for experiencing depression. Treatment with medication may be temporary. He must be thoroughly evaluated and tested. Yes, there are tests in psyhiatry (e.g. psychological measures/scales, blood tests--http://www.mayo.edu/pmts/mc8000-mc8099/mc8012-24.pdf, thyroid studies for differential diagnosis, electrolytes for delirium, biological markers are in the pipline, etc.). To say that there is an isolated gene for depression, would be foolish at this point; most likely this will not materialize as depression, like many other diseases in medicine, has a multifactorial cause. In fact, there are many diseases in non-psychiatric medicine which do not have identified causes or specific marker genes.
In general, I would think that the higher the prevelance of any mental illness the more likely its incidence of presentation for treatment would be. Therefore, more common complaints of anxiety and depression would be more common than schizophrenia, which has a prevelance of only 1%. Also, addiction treatment is a very, very common problem especially in an economic recession. Alcohol abuse is a huge cause of medical comorbidity and also contributes to motor vehicle accidents and death; I would like to see optimal treatment for alcohol abuse. Saying that alcohol abuse or addiction does not exist or is normal (hence should be left untreated), is quite naive to say the least.
70-90% of antidepressants and anti-anxiety (i.e. anxiolytics) are prescribed by non-psychiatrists, such as general practice physicians, family medicine doctors, internists, pediatricians, surgeons, etc. These are physicians not formally trained in mental illness. I would turn your admirable energy to the advocacy of proper use of psychotropic medication by physicians trained in mental illness this would eliminate over-use of psychotropic medications and ensure proper use and diagnosis.
3. Why do they put their parents in nursing homes? I'm assuming you are referring to people in general. I'm not sure for each case. I think caring for an elderly patient who is in severe bone pain dying from metastatic cancer would be a difficult job for a working single mother of 2 children. Putting her mother in hospice care is not unacceptable. Dementia, a neuropsychiatric illness, also can become complicated with patients setting fires by forgetting cooking food. Full-time surveillane can be very stressful for the family members with competing work, family, social, etc. demands.
4. Why are social problems psychiatric? Psychiatric illnesses often lead to social problems more than not. For example, a schizophrenic patient who shows up to the office naked, screaming, and paranoid that the FBI has planted a homing device in his underwear creates a problem which impacts others, hence a social issue. An addict to cocaine and marijuanna happens to be an eye surgeon shows up to work to do a corneal transplant on your family member and "accidently" mistakes the eye for an insect and gouges it out; this would create a social issue. A depressed father of 5 can not make payments and lost his job, results to suicide after killing all his family members while refusing to see a psychiatrist because he was "man enough to care for himself". Yes, these any many many more case scenarios based on actual incidents happen every day in the U.S. and world wide. The impact of refusing mental health care and refusing to treat patients who desire help for emotional, addiction, and other psychiatric illness is tremendous, and I would not want to take responsibility for the moral and ethical implications.
5. When did having a feeling, an emotion become a mental illness? Feelings are natural and can be most healthy to experience, share, and develop. Feeling depressed to the point of apathy, self-destruction, and lack of capacity to care for self or others creates a problem. In the not so distant past and in all of history, patients with mental illness, espcially among Christians, were burnt, tortured, abandoned, or abolished from society many living in caves or essentially torture centers. Psychiatry has come a long way in transforming mental illness and care for patients suffering from egodystonic psychiatric issues. How society veiws mental illness and patients with disease largely impacts how we all care for each other. Just like in the case of AIDS/HIV. At first, the stigma, hate, and fear was unmeasurable. Some religious leaders even labelled HIV as the curse from God meant to wipe out homosexuals; the thought was patients should be left to their own demise without treatment. Thankfully, many folks have left this ignorant approach and treatment for HIV/AIDS is advancing.
6. Is Obama giving stimulus funds to drug companies? Personally, I am not aware if he donates to drug companies. In terms of stimulus money, I haven't heard of money going directly to drug companies. Please go to www.recovery.gov to see exactly where our money is going. Psychiatrists do not run the government; to believe this, would be evidence for the ignorance surrounding the lack of impact psychiatrists have in contrast to financial institutions, automakers, pharmaceutical companies, etc.
7. Do Constitutional Rights apply to persons with disabilities? Yes, they apply to all U.S. citizens. Google "American Disabilities Act".
8. Do you know how much taxpayer money is appropriated for homelessness? No, please give me the exact number. I don't know where to find this fact.
9. Do you know how much is spent on academic consultants who write papers on how to solve the problem? No, please give me the exact number. I don't know where to find this fact.
10. Taxpayers fund psychiatric drugs for homeless persons but have no money for housing them. What special interest arranged that priority? Well, I did not know that no money existed for housing the homeless (see answer to question 8). Honestly, without facts off-hand, I highly doubt $0 exists for housing the homeless; on the other hand, I personally would agree that funding for care of the homeless is lacking. Interestingly, social workers are a good source of information on this issue. This would be a great place to start volunteering for you. Volunteer in a homeless shelter. It is good for the soul. I've enjoyed my experiences in volunteering for the homeless, abused, hungry, sick, and with patients with mental illness. It is more educational than cchr propaganda. Yes, thank you for info on Edward Bernays--what an interesting and influential character in American history!
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menckenlite April 30, 2009
Dear Snake Oil salesman, I am not buying. Drug companies don't get stimulus payments because they make too much money. Please continue your volunteer work helping the homeless. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. What did humans do for millions of years until the priests of the mental health movement appeared on the scene? Since the psychiatric drug industry began has violence increased or decreased? Has learning in schools increased or decreased? Was psychiatry a part of the Nazi movement in Germany and the Soviet system in Russia? Is it only German and Russian psychiatrists who do bad things to humans? Have the genes of Americans been cleansed of mendacity, greed and sadism? Yes, Edward Bernays is right up there being influential and a role model with Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Joe McCarthy, Saddam Hussein. Medicalizing social problems is what the Nazi doctors did.
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jtr03c April 30, 2009
Dear misguided schlemiel,
I am not a salesman or a doctor. Rather, I am a student concerned about the health and wellbeing of individuals and society.
A psychiatrist by the name of Sigmund Freud, M.D. was not a Nazi but rather an Ashkanazi Jew like Albert Einstein. Edward Bernays, also a Jew, was not even a psychiatrist, in fact, "In 1912 he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in agriculture, but chose journalism as his first career."
Once again, you can not answer questions. Your proposed agenda has no solutions or even a structure or plan. Why do you avoid responding to questions? It's like an interview with Sarah Palin.
AGAIN...
Okay, I will answer some of your questions in the hope that you will answer the ones from this excerpt: "Your agenda is to wipe out psychiatry, psychology, social science, and disembowel the notion of mental illness. How does this help individuals suffering and actively SEEKING help on their own? Who would you refer patients suffering with mental illness when they seek help? How would you prefer treating depression and panic attacks? How would you treat a combative and agitated 70 year old male who just came out of surgery for colon tumor resection? Would you let him walk out of the hospital with extreme risk of post-op infection and lack of medical care?"
FYI(BELOW)==>FROM WWW.NAMI.ORG
HUD Allocates Funding for Homelessness Prevention
April 29, 2009
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has already moved aggressively to disburse more than $13 billion in funding for public housing modernization, economic development and project-based rent subsidy renewals. Critical among these is a $1.5 billion Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Fund. These funds will be allocated through existing state and local homeless programs by formula. However, there is unprecedented flexibility for state and local agencies to award these funds to individuals and families at imminent risk of homelessness in the current economic downturn.
State and local agencies that serve homeless individuals are already beginning to receive these funds with instructions to direct them in a variety of ways for rapid re-housing including: short-term or medium-term rental assistance and housing relocation and stabilization services, including such activities as mediation, credit counseling, security or utility deposits, utility payments, moving cost assistance, and case management.
NAMI affiliate leaders are strongly encouraged to get involved in the required planning process at the state and local level for allocation of resources from the Homeless Prevention Fund. It is critical that people living with serious mental illness and their families at risk of homelessness be able to access assistance from this initiative.
More information on the Homeless Prevention Fund is available on the HUD website.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) has also developed resources to help advocates and non-profits get involved in the planning for implementation of this program at the local level before the May 18 application deadline. More information is available on the NAEH website.
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jtr03c April 30, 2009
You once wrote:
"Sarah Palin has executive experience leading the largest state in the union and as a Mayor. Obama is speaker without substance or consistency. This shows as he promotes himself on media instead of solving the problems he was elected to solve."
No wonder I was getting failed Sarah Palin antics from you!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-wellington-e...
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Menckenlite April 30 2009
The way you write shows that you are a student. George Bernard Shaw said, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." A pre-Homeric Greek philosopher, Cleobulous said, "The chief source of evil among men is excessive good." How does that apply to your "concerns," which merge with the intentions of the psychiatric and drug industries? As a student what are your standards for the "well-being of individuals and society?" Do you and the psychiatric industry have a special secret knowledge that ordinary persons do not? What is the evidence for your "well-being of individuals and society?" Where did you learn this? I am shocked to learn that Einstein, Bernays and Freud were Jewish. I never suspected that. To repeat "my agenda" is to end psychiatric abuses. You flatter me comparing me to Gov. Palin. I never ran for office and never ran a city or a state. Can you share your concern for the "well-being of individuals and society" with her? You ask me questions as if I were a psychiatrist. I am an ordinary citizen focused on ending psychiatric abuses. I do not believe in psychiatry as you do. You ask me as questions about your religious beliefs, psychiatry, and I subscribe to a different religion. You ask me what I would do with "a combative and agitated 70 year old male who just came out of surgery." My question about this hypothetical is "What's the problem? Did he violate any laws?" Your religion has a higher calling above the laws of the nation and of man. The city of Cambridge submitted a plan to end homelessness. If they failed to submit a plan they would not get the taxpayer funds. So they had meetings with about 50 people and submitted a plan. They do this every few years (when there is an appropriation of new funds) so that they can continue to get US taxpayer funds. But they never end homelessness. It is not necessary to make any progress at all. All they need to do to get funds is to submit a plan. They don't try to end it. The City is a member of The Coalition which supports jobs with do little work. It is a way to keep people employed and help them get their pensions. Recall the underlying article is about suicide not homelessness or Gov. Palin. Suicide is one of several issues that NAMI uses to promote more taxpayer funding for more psychiatric drug treatment. If you go to the MA state house when the budget is being discussed you will hear a NAMI mother speaking loudly in support of increased funding explaining that her son committed suicide because he did not get treatment. She never speaks about her role making her son suicidal. I posted a link to US Sen. Grassley's investigation of NAMI and its drug company funding. Did you read it?
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jtr03c May 1, 2009
First you ask, "Do you and the psychiatric industry have a special secret knowledge that ordinary persons do not?"
Readers can easily assume from this rhetorical question that you believe psychiatrists do NOT have special secret knowledge beyond that of ordinary persons.
However, in stark contradiction, you write, "You ask me questions as if I were a psychiatrist. I am an ordinary citizen...."
Well, ACCORDING TO YOUR ORIGINAL OPINION, you do not need to be a psychiatrist to make clinical judgements. So, you should be able to answer, or your beliefs surrounding mental health are fatally flawed, which I believe the latter to be true.
Back to your question at the top of this comment, yes, psychiatrists do have "special secret knowledge" compared to laypersons. Yes, it is called 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, 4 years of psychiatry residency, passing extremely rigorous United States Medical Licensing Exam Steps 1, 2 CS, 2 CK, and 3. Most psychiatrists also have extensive experience in scietific literature and many in clinical research in psychiatry and medicine.
All medical doctors, including surgeons, train in psychiatry as medical school students.
Is there a personal experience that has made this subject especially of interest to you? It is a shame that not all people experience professional and appropriate care.
I have a degree in psychology, and in 15 days I will be a doctor of medicine (M.D.). Best of luck in your ventures.
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jtr03c May 1, 2009
FYI, psychiatry is not religion; psychiatrists are not priests, ministers, or prophets. Psychiatrists are first and foremost physicians. Additionally, psychiatry and religion are not mutually exclusive. Being Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Atheist, etc. does not constitute mental illness. Research in mental health shows to the contrary that spiritual affiliation and strong social support leads to greater psychological resilience.
Prior to attending medical school, I was also student of biblical studies and theology. I scored in the national top 20th percentile for the Bible Doctrine Examination--a test taken by pastors in training for ministry. Let me emphasize the point that I firmly believe in the peaceful coexistence of many religions, spiritualities, cultures, and races.
Although most Republicans contribute the downfall of their party during this recent election to Sarah Palin, I believe her superior incompetence was a minor factor overshadowed by the co-dependent, enmeshed marriage of Christians (speaking of fundamentalist, conservative Protestants) to the Republican party, which turned off the majority of open-minded, educated Americans and minorities from different cultural and religious backgrounds. As America embraces the beauty of its true diversity, the dissociation from the Republican party will increase as long as it is identified as the Christian Caucasian clan that it presents itself as today.
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jtr03c May 1, 2009
Wow!
Sally Satel, M.D. is an interesting psychiatrist on staff at Oasis and a survivor of mental illness herself (i.e., depression---http://booknotes.onstreammedia.com/vss-bin/vss_SR/cspan_booknotes/search?template=popup_frame.tmpl&_query=&access=Private&ShowID=1622&_query4=Entire+Program&CspanUserId=&cbin=&asset_id=1123).
Watch out who you quote!!! Watch this video!!
"Oasis Treatment Center provides a full range of skilled and compassionate personnel. The interdisciplinary staff members include professionals specializing in the treatment of addictive disorders. The Medical Doctor, an addiction specialist, provides initial evaluations and our staff Psychiatrist is available for the dual-diagnosed client." (http://www.oasistreatment.org/dual_diag.html)
Dr. Satel's treatment of dual-diagnosis clients involves the following:
"There are three parts to dealing with clinical mood disorders, all equally important to fully address the issue. 1) Psychiatric evaluation and diagnosis followed by regular monitoring of medication with the goal of getting the client chemically balanced. 2) Individual and group therapies addressing specific addictions and co-occurring conditions."
Again, make sure watch this video: http://www.booknotes.org/Program/?ProgramID=1622
By the way, I know very little more about Sally Satel, except that she also writes on contraversial issues and puts forth some odd but thought-povoking questions. Good cognitive exercising it seems. However, the one excerpt I was reading from her book "The Health Disparities Myth" shows that she has really done this extremely important topic of racial disparity in medicine significant injustice.
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Menckenlite May 2, 2009
Dear Doctor Doctor, If I knew you were a doctor I would never question you. Everyone knows that doctors always speak the truth with scientific certainty, and listen to their patients. We are not worthy, forgive us oh great ones. Doctors know it all especially today after all of those exquisite treatments like bleeding, cold baths, electro-shock and neuroleptics. The treatments just keep getting more exotic. Um, is wildly popular Phil Markoff a medical student too? You say, "ACCORDING TO YOUR ORIGINAL OPINION, you do not need to be a psychiatrist to make clinical judgements (sic)." It is not just my opinion. Massachusetts state law gives police officers guidelines to make psychiatric diagnoses. Journalists do it every day. Friends, relatives, prosecutors, neighbors, lawyers, lovers all make psychiatric diagnoses. According to you I am wrong and you are right, correct? So psychiatry is not a religion but the only reason psychiatry exists is because people believe in it. Only psychiatrists can see mental illnesses. Why is that? Along with that special secret knowledge is there some special abilities they learn (or are they born with them?) to see what others cannot see? Isn't that what psychiatrists call paranoia? Many highly educated humans are thoroughly caught up with all of their book learning but have little or no common sense. They can talk and write and sell their beliefs to others not as well educated. But when it comes to applying their knowledge to the real world they are lost and do a lot of harm due to their huge egos. That is a serious problem with doctors. Are you one of them? From where did you get the idea that "most Republicans contribute (sic) the downfall of their party during this recent election to Sarah Palin?" CNN? Chris Matthews? George Stephanopolous? Janeane Garofalo? This was a discussion about suicide, not Republicans, homelessness and religion. Do you have difficulty concentrating on one subject at a time? Would you like to try a Ritalin cocktail on the rocks? Finally! You bring up race. I wondered why it was missing. Your medical professors taught you well about all the important issues, To-The-Media. How will this affect your treatment of humans who disagree with your dogmas?
* * *
jtr03c May 5, 2009
I doubt that you will be one of my patients, at least voluntarily. Have a nice day.
* * *
menckenlite May 6, 2009
US Senate Reveals Drug cos Fund 56 percent of NAMI
http://enoughroom.blogspot.com/2009/05/nami-and...
or
http://tinyurl.com/dzr32w
* * *
http://www.pharmfree.org/
I AGREE that funding must be transparent. In my opinion, public funding should be the primary source of healthcare and pharmaceutical research in all areas of medicine not just psychiatry. Once a drug is developed and approved, private industry could then bid competitively to manufacture and sell the products for the cheapest prices possible. I also support a universal healthcare system free of insurance, pharmacy INC. dominance, and private hospital big business.
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/april/testimony_o...
Interestingly (OR NOT) drug companies have had major influences in politics and all specialties--an ethical issue of great interest and debate publically and professionally. Nonetheless, instead of discrediting an entire profession or specialty, efforts must be made to reform and redefine each specialty as innovations are made. Creating hate and fear is by no means a diplomatic method for improvement. Another problem with medicine in general is the resistance to change, which is probably worse than the military or government.
Case in point, Libby Zion died needlessly in NY (1984) likely due in part to over-worked, sleep-deprived doctors (patient's cocaine abuse was also an issue). "Libby Zion law" did not come into place until 5 years later in the state of NY, which limited residents to an 80-hour work week (still many old-school doctors feel that 100-hour work weeks are too restrictive). It wasn't until almost 20 years later that ACGME finally made this a national requirement for all U.S. residency programs. By the way, residents get paid on average $46,000/yr. What does that work out to be, around $11/hr? Registered nurses, with 2 years of post-high school education make 2-3 times this amount.
* * *
It is fitting that your focus as a medical student (unlike Phil Markoff) is on the health care system. One observer calls it more appropriately a disease management system. But this was about suicide. To repeat, my focus is on ending psychiatric abuses. You may have no conception of the brutality of psychiatrists. I'm aware of how diseased doctors murder patients and get away with the first two killings. No snitchin' is the rule among doctors too. You accept the false assumptions of psychiatry. You don't question psychiatrists and their flawed journal articles. You trust the FDA, which is a taxpayer funded lobbyist for the drug and device industries. I'm aware that it is easier to open a rock than a mind. I am not a diplomat. Regarding the fear of insiders (medical professionals included) to speak out about abuses see Stanley Milgram's "Obedience to Authority," and
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/82548-Sunshine-on-the-ACLU-a-mea-culpa/
or
http://tinyurl.com/p5anan
Sunshine on the ACLU: a mea culpa
Freedom Watch
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE
Boston Phoenix
May 6, 2009
* * *
jtr03c wrote, May 10, 2009
IF YOUR FAMILY MEMBER, LOVED ONE, OR FRIEND CAME TO YOU WITH COMPLAINTS THAT SHE WAS VERY SAD AND DEPRESSED FOR THE PAST TWO MONTHS WITH ALMOST ZERO ENERGY, NO APPETITE, DIFFICULTY SLEEPING, NO INTEREST IN GOING OUT OR DOING HER REGULAR ACTIVITIES, GRADES IN COLLEGE DROPPING FROM A's & B's TO D's & F's, A FEW REPRIMANDS AT HER PART TIME JOB FOR BEING FREQUENTLY LATE, AND SERIOUS THOUGHTS OF SUICIDE HOURLY TO DAILY WITH PLANS TO END IT ALL BY USING HER DAD'S HAND GUN, WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND HER TO DO IN YOUR PROPOSED ABSENCE OF PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOLOGY GIVEN THAT SHE HAS NO HISTORY OF SEEING ANYBODY FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN THE PAST AND TAKES NO MEDICATIONS?
I'M NOT ASKING HOW SHOULD A DOCTOR OR MENTAL HEALTH CARE WORKER RESPOND TO THIS SITUATION, ALTHOUGH YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS WOULD ALSO BE VERY HELPFUL. SIMPLY, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO HER OR RECOMMEND HER TO DO GIVEN THE FACTS YOU HAVE ABOVE.
AGAIN, YOUR ABILITY TO ANSWER THIS RELEVANT, ON-TOPIC QUESTION MUST BE SATISFIED IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH CREDIBILITY TO YOUR ARGUMENTS THAT (1) MENTAL ILLNESS DOES NOT EXIST, (2) MENTAL HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS ARE BRUTAL KILLERS (SIC), AND (3) MEDICATIONS ARE THE SOURCE OF ILLNESS NOT THE TREATMENT FOR ILLNESS.
* * *
menckenlite May 10, 2009
Why are you yelling? (All caps?)
If my "FAMILY MEMBER, LOVED ONE, OR FRIEND CAME" to me with problems I would sit with him or her and listen.
You say, "THIS RELEVANT, ON-TOPIC QUESTION MUST BE SATISFIED IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH CREDIBILITY." Oh? To what is it relevant? Who made up that rule? Credibility with who or what? Answers to hypothetical questions are traps. Are you willing to volunteer with WHO at the United Nations, or CNN?
(1) You want proof that mental illness does not exist? Here it is (...). Now you prove that it does exist.
(2) Nazi Doctors and Stalinist psychiatrists were brutal killers. Do you think
that American psychiatrists are not like the rest?
(3) I previously cited the drug company friendly FDA black box warnings on anti depressants as one example.
* * *
jtr03c May 10, 2009
I didn't realize that typing with CAPS LOCK was yelling, my bad. It was on so I just used it.
So what does listening without action achieve? Is that the therapy that works? If so, we are getting closer to something substantial now with this constructive discussion. I would definitely agree that listening, empathy, compassion, trust, confidentiality, and insightful reflection are all very therapeutic in a relationship, especially one between a patient and therapist.
Look, this is extremely simple. As an analogy, if I propose that gasoline is bad for the environment and that we should ban all gas burning engines immediately, the obvious response (given that everyone agrees with my proposal) would be, "How the hell do we get to work?" Yes, there must be an alternative solution. So a thorough proposal, hence a credible one, would not only state what the problem is but provide a solution or alternative. In the gas engine example, I could finish my proposal with recommendations that electric engines should be used instead.
Okay, back to our topic of discussion. We have a hypothetical case of a "FAMILY MEMBER, LOVED ONE, OR FRIEND" as described above presenting to you with signs and symptoms of major depressive disorder. Your proposal is that psychiatry is bad. As an alternate or solution, you would prefer to listen to her (the hypothetical girl with depression). What if your listening leaves you where you started. That is to say, she is still depressed and suicidal at the end of your conversation. Then what?
* * *
You brought in a third person with an economic interest. That is why hypotheticals are traps. You add things as you go. This began as a two persons with a positive relationship. You say this is meaningful? I think it is hilarious. The "therapist" is an adjunct. Therapy means to minister. It does not define what is being ministered.
You say "everyone agrees with my proposal." Is that by definition, axiom, postulate or your rules? That is one element that makes this funny. You think that you know better than others and that everyone agrees with you. In your mind perhaps they do.
You ask, "Then what?" What is it that you expect to happen? Yes, then what? Under your totalitarian system it is necessary to act because nothing has changed? If nothing has changed what happened? Has the person committed a crime? It appears that under your system if you do not like what a person says that is criminal and requires action to stop more crimes. That too is hilarious for this nation. Have you ever read the US Constitution or the state constitution where you reside? Try reading the First Amendment. Then read about protected speech. Think about WHO at the UN. You are better suited to another country with the rest of the psychiatric industry.
* * *
jtr03c May 11, 2009
Listening without action?
* * *
menckenlite May 11, 2009
Your negative view of persons accused of mental illness is obvious. Aside from your requirement demanding an answer to a hypothetical, you show your negative bias. What action is needed when two persons talk? What is it that you expect from the person talking? Are you sure you do not want to volunteer for WHO at the UN? Your attitude toward troubled persons fits better in non democratic nations. Where is your proof that mental illnesses exist?
* * *
jtr03c wrote, May 11, 2009
Now, you are just getting plain sloppy. Even responding to simple questioning proves to be overwhelming for you. Furthermore, your use of language and terminology is frequently incorrect and applied without much thought. Honestly, you often lose me in your train of thought. Many times while reading your work, I find myself asking, what the heck is this cat rambling out?
When asked clearly and directly about a case, you defer to obsessively discussing politics, political and organizational bodies, crime, and ministry/religion. For the love of maple oatmeal, I really do not understand the crime thing. I did not mention any legal history in the vignette.
FYI - I do not think depression and suicide are hilarious. I do not believe that everyone agrees with me or you for that matter. I often spend many a nights losing sleep while reading state constitutions...okay, that one is a lie.
* * *
menckenlite May 11, 2009
You posited an hypothetical. Now you say it is a case? Is this a violation of the HIPAA laws?
You ask "Then what?" after talking. Why do you ask that question? I know you do not understand the "crime thing." You think you are helping a person giving them treatment "they do not know they need." You take a person's freedom and force drugs on them, an assault. But you see it as treatment. That is what is a crime, your alleged treatment.
How do you justify putting a person in a hospital against his or her will? It is not for a crime. But you think taking a person's freedom for forced treatment is OK.
Responding to your hypothetical (case?) I suggested I would listen to the person. You asked "Then what?" You don't understand why asking that question is a problem. I know how you think and why you do not understand my response. Without doing an act you want further interference with a person's life. Who are you to interfere with another person's pursuit of happiness? Who do you think you are? You think psychiatry is treatment, but it is an abusive business.
As an example of real world facts, not an hypothetical, read David Rosenhan's experiments with grad student. What they said was used to admit them into a mental hospital. Protected speech under the US Constitution was used as a reason to make the students patients. It is parallel to how you think about what you do.
Think about WHO at the UN. I think you are suitable for that organization.
* * *
jtr03c wrote, May 11, 2009
It's a hypothetical, realistic case or vignette. I do not see the confusion What does HIPAA have to do with hypothetical cases?
In the case, I did not say the patient committed a crime.
Anyways, I would not recommend forced hospitalization or medication to every person who says, "I'm depressed." Not everybody is hospitalized by force as you imply. Most people see a psychiatrist because they seek help on their own free will. Most psychiatric patients are treated in an office or other outpatient setting not a "mental hospital". Most mental illnesses can be managed/treated with talk therapy from a licensed professional counselor or psychiatrist. Only rare, extreme cases result in hospitalization to protect a patient or others from threat of violence, homicidal/suicidal attempts (e.g. Hanging self in closet), or reckless endangerment (e.g. Driving a car into a flea market to run over "aliens" and escape attack from the white bear spirit).
Again, if a patient comes to me as a psychiatrist and the patient asks for medical therapy because talk therapy has had limited results for his/her particular complaint, then I do not see how the patient's free will is violated by giving psychotropic medication. To refuse a patient's request for medical therapy would be violation of his/her wishes; however, medications are often refused because of potential side effects or harm which doctors must always consider in treatment of any disease, psychiatic or otherwise.
To my knowledge the WHO and UN do not regulate psychiatric practice or run all U.S. Hospitals. Reference to these organizations is quite biazzare.
Happy trails!
* * *
menckenlite May 11, 2009
You changed your terms from "what if" to "a case." That is why HIPAA laws came into the discussion. You don't even check your own posts for errors, no less mine. You make up what I say. You are deceptive and a bully.
You never provided evidence that mental illnesses exist. You asked "Then what." after talking to a troubled person. You did not answer why you ask that. What is it that you expect?
Taking a person's freedom is a "good" for you. It is a violation of rights, a deprivation for the person detained. You do not reveal from what state you speak. If you are in MA the standards you suggest for taking a person's freedom are wrong. There are five instances which allow involuntary hospitalization under MA laws. All require a "likelihood of serious harm." You are not the only medical professional (or wannabe) who is ignorant of the laws they abuse. You scoff at the Constitution. You are not unique in that either among medical professionals.
Your most offensive flaw is speaking about things you do not know. You make up facts and base your doctrines on false information and assumptions. That is a dangerous characteristic for a doctor.
I recommend that you join WHO at the UN not because of its psychiatric focus, but to get you out of this country so you do not harm American citizens.
You have a lot to learn. I hope that you are not typical when it comes to arrogant young doctors with little knowledge of humans and the laws. To repeat for the third time I focus on psychiatric abuses, which if you do not improve your knowledge you will be the source of many.
* * *
jtr03c wrote [May 12, 2009]
You are truly an amazing creation! John 3:16
[This Bible citation, John 3:16, is "For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life."]
[This post was removed and replaced by the next post after I asked some people if they thought it was a threat.]
* * *
jtr03c May 12, 2009
Thanks for the conversation; I've enjoyed your passion and willingless to engage on this topic. Take care.
* * *
[Original article]
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527841
Study Reveals Suicide Risk Statistics
Published On Thursday, April 23, 2009 11:31 AM
By MONICA S. LIU
Harvard Crimson
Contributing Writer
DROP A DIME AT:
You can send me an email at rb662 (at) columbia.edu John Adams (1735-1826) Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
US Federal Debt July 2, 2016 $19,385,011,022,974.42.
The estimated population of the United States is 323,268,727 so each citizen's share of this debt is $59,965.62. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $2.42 billion per day since September 30, 2012!
"Sarchasm:" the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the recipient who doesn't get it. (Tom Witte, Gaithersburg)" Washington Post August 2, 1998, Style.
George Washington (1732-1799) "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent -- it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." "If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor." "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Thomas Sowell (1930 -) "One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them."
Noam Chomsky (1928 -) “If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all” (Guardian (UK), Nov.23, 1992)
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) "Chance favors the prepared mind."
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) "If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."
E. E. Cummings (1894-1962) "To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting."
Jodie Foster (1962 - ) "Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from."
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970 )"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." "The fundamental cause of trouble in the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Frank Leahy (1907-1973) "Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity."
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) "A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road."
James Michael Curley (1874-1958) “Never complain, never explain.”
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939 ) "The reason for so much bad science is not that talent is rare, not at all; what is rare is character."
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) “I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.” "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
Andre Gide: (1869-1951) "Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again." "Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) "And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."
A woman responding to a threat from Cuban-backed terrorists in El Salvador, 1982 “You can kill me, you can kill my family, kill my neighbors, but you can’t kill us all.”
Aung San Suu Kyi (1945- ) "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear."
Dorothy Thompson (1894-1961) "Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) "Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable."
Lady Marguerite Gardiner (1789-1849) "There are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to rise in the world."
Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)"Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty." "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
Will Rogers: (1879-1938) "When people start taking the comedian seriously and the politician as a joke, everything changes." "This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer."
Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900-1965) "My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular." [Under this definition, Cambridge Massacchusetts, and the state of Massachusetts are not free societies. ed.]
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
Maria Bartiromo (1967 -) "My [commencement 2011] speech at St. John's [University, New York] three themes: work hard, no shortcuts, love what you do, and always do the right thing."
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) "Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists ... it is real ... it is possible ... it's yours."
Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) "Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well."
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) "The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone."
Dr. Seuss (1904-1991, Theodor Seuss Geisel) "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda) "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Howie Carr (1952- Boston Herald Columnist, WRKO Radio Talk Show Host) "The [MA] courts are more corrupt than the legislature." (November 18, 2010, 6:15 PM on his radio show.)
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) "In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."
William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.
Voltaire (François Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) "Common sense is not so common." "Doubt is not a pleasant mental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one." "Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world."
Martha Coakley (1953 - Democrat, MA Attorney General, 2010) "In Massachusetts, technically, it is not illegal to be illegal."
Deval Patrick (1956 - Democrat, MA Governor, 2010) "I am not a politician."
Michael Bloomberg (1942 - Democrat, Republican, Independent 3-Term Mayor of New York City and Billionaire) "Last time I checked, the pharmaceutical industry doesn't make a lot of money."
George W. Bush (1946 - ) "Intentions get overwhelmed by perceptions."
John Tudor "Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology."
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) "There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."
H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) "There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character." "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." "No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes she were not." "For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." "It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull." "Democracy is the theory that people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." "Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage."
Michel de Montaigne: (1533-1592) "The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness."
Aldous Huxley: (1894-1963) "I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself."
T. S. Eliot: (1888-1965) Half the harm that is done in this world Is due to people who want to feel important They don’t mean to do harm But the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle To think well of themselves."
Burt Prelutsky, (1940- Columnist) "Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with a Muslim building a nuclear bomb in Iran."
Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) "An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less."
Henry Kissinger: (1923 - ) "In this world it is often dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, but to be a friend is fatal."
Socrates: (469BC-399BC) "He is the richest who is content with the least." 
Leo Tolstoy: (1828-1910) "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." "Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly." "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." "Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."
P.J. O'Rourke (A Parliament of Whores) "Imagine if all of life were determined by majority rule. Every meal would be a pizza. Every pair of pants, even those in a Brooks Brothers suit, would be stone-washed denim. Celebrity diet and exercise books would be the only thing on the shelves at the library. And - since women are a majority of the population- we'd all be married to Mel Gibson."
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
Orson Welles (as Harry Lime in The Third Man, 1949) "In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of democracy and peace -- and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Tacitus: (c. 56 AD-c. 117) "The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates."
Ralph Waldo Emerson: (1803-1882) "Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing."
Doug Hoffman: (2009 Conservative Party Candidate for US Rep. NY 23rd District) "Congress fiddles while our economy burns. They lack common sense."
Rich Lowry: (On ObamaCare) "A shimmering mirage of wishful thinking and willful dishonesty."
President Obama (as he loses public support.) "We cannot wait any longer [. . .] There comes a time to remember the fierce urgency of right now."
Rush Limbaugh: (On first hour of his show broadcast October 23, 2009) Obama "is delusional." He's "seriously dangerous." He's "insane." Reacting to Obama's comments that the US Constitution is an obstacle to "redistribution of wealth." Obama also referred to "the so called founders."
Marek Edelman, leader of Warsaw Ghetto uprising. (1919?-2009) "Man is evil, by nature man is a beast. People have to be educated from childhood, from kindergarten, that there should be no hatred."
Adis Medunjanin (24 in January 2010, Queens, NY man accused of training with al Qaeda): "We love death more than you love life."
Edward Moore Kennedy (1932-2009): "Do we operate under a system of equal justice or one for the average citizen and one for the high and mighty?"
Robert Novak: (1931-2009) “Always love your country — but never trust your government!
Calvin Coolidge: (1872-1933) “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in Dead Pool: "Opinions are like a**holes. Everybody's got one."
Lyndon Johnson: (1908-1973) “The difference between liberals and cannibals is that cannibals don’t eat their friends and family members.”
Margaret Thatcher: (1925 - 2013) "The problem with socialism is that eventually, you run out of others people's money."
John Adams: (1735-1826) "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
Abraham Lincoln: (1809-1865) "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Thomas Jefferson: (1743-1826) "Merchants have no country." “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
James Madison: (1751-1836) “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
Mark Twain: (1835-1910) "Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing often and for the same reason." "It's not what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you think you know for sure that just ain't so." "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." "Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions." "Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
Maggie Gallagher: (1960 - ) "Politicians can pass a bill saying a chicken is a duck and that doesn't make it true. Truth matters."
Humpty Dumpty (In Alice in Wonderland) "When I use a word, it means exactly what I want it to. No more no less."
Groucho Marx: (Julius Henry, 1890-1977) "Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read."
United States Constitution http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html
FACTS ARE STUBBORN: 
John Adams: Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. 
Aldous Huxley: Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. 
Thomas Fuller: Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.
Obama Lost the Debate on Health Care:Unable to counter widespread concerns of citizens about his health care plans, Obama supporters conduct intense vitriolic attacks on critics. Obama has no rational arguments, and hopes to discredit his critics by character assassination. They are not just racists now they are greedy racists and hate mongers. Maybe that will work. Ya think? Obama-Biden: Stupid is as stupid does. Biden: "We misread how bad the economy was."
Obama: [Correcting Biden]"We had incomplete information." So the US Congress voted for and the President signed a $787 billion stimulus bill without having read it, and with incomplete information? And they say others are stupid? Hello? Then Congress voted for a 1,000+ page "cap and trade" bill that none of them read.
Bloomberg: Daschle says, "Health care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them," while former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm says seniors have "a duty to die." If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that the President, Senators and Congressmen have their own special gold plated health care plan which is guaranteed the remainder of their lives and they are not subject to this new law if they pass it. Reverse the dangerous direction of the Obama administration and its allies.
Obama, The Un-Truman: David McCullough, in his biography of Harry Truman, "Truman" says on page 217, "Harry cared little more for other [than Huey Long] celebrated 'speechifiers' in the Senate. Admittedly fearful of making a speech himself, he seemed to resent particularly those who could and who made their reputations that way. They were the 'egotistical boys' whose specialty was talk." Obama admitted that he can make a speech but that he was incapable of doing anything in the Senate. Where did he gets his special powers during the campaign?
Obama's Mantra: He keeps repeating, "I won the election." He expects all Americans to support what HE wants. "I won," is how Obama implements the post-partisan unification of America. What a guy! See also Rich Lowry's "Sorry, O: 'I won' Won't Cover this," New York Post, February 6, 2009, page 27. http://www.nypost.com/seven/02062009/postopinion/opedcolumnists sorry__o__i_won_wont_cover_this_153839.htm
MIDDLESEX DA: We're too busy to address crimes less than murder. On Thursday June 25, 2009 Marian Ryan, who works for the Middlesex District Attorney in MA, returned my call from the previous day. She heads the unit for abuse of elders and abuse of persons with disabilities. She told me, "We've had four murders this month." That was to explain why she was unable to address 35 years of police abuses of a citizen with a disability now an elder. She said that a police officer making a threat did not rise to the level of a crime. She did not have time or resources to address abuses by the City Manager and the Police Commissioner of Cambridge, and the Harvard University campus police. It was no concern that using police to harass a person with a disability may be the reason for the four murders. MA Civil Rights statute and possession of illegal firearms are felonies, but not murder. Misallocation of resources is easily apparent. If the police focused on criminals instead of harassing elders with disabilities there might be less violent crime. But who was I to argue.
Cambridge Censorship: In October 2009 City Council Candidate Kathy Podgers complained to Attorney Bill August, long term president of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, that her posts to the neighborhood discussion lists were not appearing. Then Bob LaTremouille added his similar complaints. When I chimed in that my posts did n0t appear for many months Bill August accused me of libel. I said he ignored my complaints about censorship. For a lawyer he does not read very well. On one occasion in 2007 I sent a letter via Fedex from one part of Cambridge to another. I used Fedex because of frequent tampering with my mail by USPS employees. Mail was withheld by USPS employees, and some mail was intercepted and never got to where I sent it. The letter sent by Fedex never arrived either. Their tracking system ended before it was delivered. I wrote to the President of Fedex. He sent me a check for $25 to compensate me. What good is money if you can't send a letter from one part of a city to another? In June 2009 I sent a letter to a US Government agency complaining about a mobbed up police officer who was protecting criminals who harass me each day. Two days after I sent the letter the police detective appeared at a market as I shopped. He used a young woman as bait to try to have me arrested. In June 2009 someone opened a YouTube account solely to publish a comment attacking me personally. This is a frequent experience of an ongoing character assassination campaign by criminals and their police associates. A Harvard University attorney told me not to make complaints to their real estate offices but to the office of the General Counsel. The lawyer assigned was trying to deceive me. On June 6, 2009 I noticed a threat from a police officer as a comment under one of my videos posted on YouTube July 7, 2008. The video shows a Cambridge police patrol car parked in a bus stop. The officer was having dinner nearby not on an emergency call. Every day since I complained to the Attorney General about the threat Cambridge police or Harvard campus police follow me and try to provoke me. The Attorney General is married to a supervising Cambridge police officer. I learned on June 15, 2009 that the FBI was investigating me again. In May 2009, my comments on the Boston Herald web pages (a public accommodation) were removed allegedly due to violations of guidelines. When I complained one was restored. Interns referred me to a staff writer when three of my comments about the shooting death at a Harvard dorm were removed. Someone unknown to me posted a picture of a man from the city in my YouTube profile. That means that someone is tampering with my YouTube account. That is a felony under US law. On or about December 12, 2008 my name was removed from two neighborhood discussion lists--Riverside and Cambridgeport. My attempts to be put back on were ignored by the former President of the Riverside neighborhood, Larry Adkins. Cambridgeport moderators opened my new access in February 2009. In May 2009 I received messages from the list but was unable to post messages. Last year I was unable to receive or post messages to the Porter Square neighborhood discussion list. No notice there either. They began a new list this year and I now get messages. But I was the target of personal attacks on the Porter Square list, the Cambridgeport discussions and on the Cambridge Chronicle web pages. An FBI informant who maintains a web site about the City of Cambridge ridicules me and others who he believes have disabilities. My account with YouTube (more than 250 videos posted) was shut in August 2008 and my appeals of Fair Use Doctrine were ignored. On April 15, 2009 my YouTube account was re-opened. Emily Rooney, host of the PBS news show, Greater Boston threatened to have me banned from Boston. Cambridge City Councilor and Harvard lawyer, Brian Murphy, who resigned in February 2009 to take a six-figure job with the state used council rules to silence my expression. These are rules that the Council created but ignore at every meeting. An email account I used specially for discussion lists was shut down with no notice and no reason or warning given. My several emails inquiring why have been ignored. That account was re-opened on February 10, 2009. Google Video flagged and blocked four uploaded episodes of a cable access TV show I produced and hosted on CCTV. When I appealed their decision, they agreed to put it back up. But as of this date one remains blocked. In February 2009 a long term producer of documentaries at CCTV told me "There is no such thing as Free Speech." That was the second time someone in Cambridge said that to me.
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