Posted on 01/15/2011 2:08:02 AM PST by Scanian
In his Tucson speech, Presi dent Obama rightly said that "terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding." Why that morning? Why Gabby Giffords? These and other questions can't be answered, but at a more pedestrian level, the massacre isn't so mysterious: Someone displaying all the symptoms of untreated schizophrenia killed people.
This is not an extraordinarily rare or inexplicable occurrence. According to the psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, 4 million people in the United States have serious mental illnesses, and 1.8 million of them go untreated. Two hundred thousand are homeless, and 300,000 are in jail or prison. Tormented by depression or delusions, about 15 percent kill themselves, and they commit about 1,600 murders a year.
Obama was too sweeping when he said we shouldn't point fingers. Our ire should be directed at the mental-health "advocates," federal bureaucrats and crusading civil libertarians who fight to maintain a status quo that makes it so hard to treat the mentally ill. They are the madness lobby.
They aren't responsible for Jared Loughner or his crimes. They do deserve the blame for a system that willfully lets people fall through the cracks and pretends diseased minds can make rational decisions. At its best, this system is cruel in abandoning the ill to their suffering; in exceptional cases, it is reckless in leaving dangerous people to do harm to themselves or others. The madness lobby helps make the lunatic act of violence a routine part of the American landscape.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
And all the anti-psychotic medication nuts who want every depressed or mentally ill person off all kinds of pills that help or even cure depression and/or manic depression.
I don’t blame him.
They are vicious defenders of their so called religion and their image.
If he thought of the Scientologist at all he would logically have avoided speaking against them unless he wanted to spend millions defending himself against libel lawsuits and had an irrational desire to be stalked by professional thugs.
I don’t think newspapers today have the money to spend defending themselves against thugs with deep pockets like Scientology.
Yep. Visit any city in America and you’ll see them prowling the streets. We have less than 10,000 residents here and derelict cuckoos are all over the place, in winter especially.
When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing that more of them don’t act out violently in public.
Lets not go there. The vast majority of the mentally ill will never do a violent thing in their lives. The bunch of quacks known as psychiatrists have never and will never be able to see into the future and predict which handful of nutcases will end up doing something reprehensible; so let’s not attribute to them a wisdom which they don’t possess.
He's LYING.
MSNBC's ratings aren't *that* high.
Cheers!
The problem here is criteria and stigma.
There was a time where the United States did round up people that are mentally ill and sent them to places like the Athens Lunatic Asylum in Athens, Ohio. There was such a stigma on mental illness that a cousin who I guess talked to himself was actully picked up by police because some woman complained and thought he was a creepy pedophile because he liked to sit on a bench at the park. HE WAS NOT A PEDOPHILE, he was not dangerous, he was just very mixed up. there in lies the risk. he was mistreated on numerous occasions and my mother has always believed it made it worse that he was afraid to go out in public after that incident. he had a sad life.
Then there is the issue of what constitutes mental illness. If you look at the Ohio diagnostic codes for mental illness, you will discover that you and most of the people you know get angry, depressed or have a mood swing from time to time.
the real task is trying to find the Jared Loughners of the world. and we should set them up in their own personal locked hotels for the rest of their lives if they are a threat to themselves and others. but it is not as black and white as you think it is
I know what you mean...I had a second cousin who was institutionalized just because she mouthed off to her siblings one time too many and they ganged up on her. Took her years to get out.
That’s not right either but there has to be a way to strike a balance.
That’s right...but I can see a lot of freaky characters roaming the streets around here who would love to watch Tingle Boy or Untermann-—if only they had a home and a TV.
Yes. I agree.
I don’t like the way the left is soft of crime and evil acts.
But on this issue. A person who has mood swings or is mixed up upstairs. Unless they break a law. or make a threat. They are protected by the United States Constitution. and they have a right.. as much as I hate to say this. to refuse medications. unless their is a special circumstance with a court order.
Bump.
Yes most are Quacks.
There are extremes and vogues in everything, and the plight and problem of mental illness sufferers is no different.
For whatever it’s worth, I’ve kept up for a while with the newsletters and such out of one prominent advocate for the mentally ill, NAMI. They want it less, not more, difficult for people suffering from mental illness to get into hospital treatment. Some of the most difficult places to do that are in lefty strongholds. So they have no reason to be biased more towards the Democrats.
Usually the person needs to be suffering so badly that he or she is a menace to self or others... basically suicidal or homicidal. And different doctors will often give different readings on the same person.
This problem was exacerbated by the LIBs (isn’t that true for most “problems”?). They felt that the holding tanks (aka: mental hospitals)were against the insane persons’ civil rights so they purported to treat them by having “community treatment” and closing the hated mental hospitals. Great intentions (as usual) however, don’t solve problems. They didn’t provide adequate “community treatment”. So the many of the insane roam communities untreated, ignored and unwanted. Most kill themselves and each other but a few might kill you. Thanks LIBs. Another good job at managing society.
Thank-you.
This week which is passing, a few times, I had to tell quite a few posters that most if not the majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent. I have come to know a couple of people in my life with such illnesses and believe me, it is enough they have to struggle with what they have to deal with, let alone be violent against others.
I can’t imagine what a boondoggle “community treatment” would be. The NAMI I mentioned earlier doesn’t seem to be pushing that. They’re smart enough to know that more traditional outpatient/inpatient systems work better.
But if a person seems to be merely “odd” (he talks to his plants or whatever) but otherwise capable of supporting himself that shouldn’t be enough to get him clapped behind locked doors for years, even if the floors are carpeted.
It’s also worth noting that psychiatrists and mental “hospitals” are also a favorite tool of totalitarian regimes to suppress dissent. It’s not such a stretch to imagine one or another Obama Czar deciding that “certain political actions”... such as demanding to see Obama’s BC or school records (just to think of one example)... are symptoms of schizophrenia and require “long term treatment”.
There’s another reason not to mention Scientology in the article. Scientology probably had little or no impact on making the legal changes discussed in the article. Outside of Hollywood, Scientology really doesn’t have much influence on what goes on in this country.
ML/NJ
I can't watch Greta without thinking that she has all that nonsense swirling around in her brain.
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