Rounding Up the Insane

Oregon Magazine ^ | June 23, 2002 | Larry Leonard

[WaterDragon]

Sunday, June 22,2002 -- Seven days, the state budget, the Sixties, Ken Kesey and the insane. People who do not live in Oregon don't know what they're missing. I almost missed it myself. Didn't catch this seminal program on its Friday, Oregon Public Broadcasting, appearance. Was trying to start my Fiat on Sunday afternoon when the show reran. But, knowing I'd get a column out of this one, the Spyder wisely refused to start...(snip)

The important item on this program was their discussion about the insane. This was a classic.

It was stimulated by the Supreme Court's recent decision to shut down execution of people of low intelligence. The panel's support of this decision was obviously based on a deep sense of personal relief....(snip)

For complete article click here.

[Billthedrill]

Not, perhaps, the best of timing locally - I'm talking Seattle here - for This Reason. A lunatic who had served one-half of his term for previously attacking a LEO managed to shoot another one in the head with the guy's own service pistol. The libs who were bleating about the poor insane are suddenly very, very quiet hereabouts. "Treat and release" seems just a little less attractive...for now...

[WaterDragon]

The mentally ill do deserve treatment, which they don't get regularly living on the street. Most need the protected environment of an institution.

[WaterDragon]

bttt FYI

[Illbay]

It happened right after Oregon's Revolutionary Literary icon, Ken "kaleidoscope" Kesey, sold One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Hollywood and Jack Nicholson turned Randle P. McMurphy into a spokesman for what was wrong with America.

Y'know, I always wondered about that. Whatever they were doing to Jack Nicholson didn't work. Several years later when he did The Shining he was as nutty as ever!

[WaterDragon]

LOL, Illbay!

[WaterDragon]

bttt....

[goodieD]

Funny you should mention oddball candidates, but in our governor's primary race we had one gentleman who had devoted his life to making ferrets legal again in the state of California. That was pretty much all he talked about in his statement.

[goodieD]

so if some leftist democrat drives me crazy, and I accidentally kill em, I will get state sponsored room and board for life? hmmmmm.....

[WaterDragon]

There's a thought!

[WaterDragon]

More likely there will be endless 'friends and neighbors' testifying to the how dumb the murderer on trial is. "He was such a nice boy, but thicker than a plank." Can't you just hear it?

[dixiechick2000]

"Goofyville? That's the nickname for Salem, right?"

"Goofyville, Or., aka Portland..politicly this place is a run by a bunch of cartoon characters."

I was going to say that Goofyville could be any decent sized city on the Willamette River. However, bybybill, I should have known you were speaking of Portland, aka Moscow on the Willamette. Those cartoon characters are the reason I live outside the urban growth boundary in Washington County.