DON'T Say Their Name

Active shooters have one thing in common--they want to go down in an infamous blaze of glory with their names plastered across the news. Not only does the news media grant their dying wish and encourage others to do the same, but some news agencies try to look into the psychology of the person doing the shooting and empathize with them. Yes, when sociopaths and those with untreated mental illness attack others, those of us who are sane question why they would do that. The answer is simple: They are insane. Never should a news agency use mental illness as an excuse for what these people do--hundreds of millions of people suffer with mental illness every day and most who get treatment are still suffering due to the trial and error process that no scientist has been tasked with resolving. Poverty or abusive families is also not the answer--again hundreds of millions of children suffer abuse and poverty and do not shoot anyone. 

The Tennessee shooting, where we have evidence the shooter wanted to both die and to make it on the news--the real motives of this evil person, shows us that our media needs to be more discrete in granting these shooters wishes. Imagine if all news agencies stopped printing shooter names and pictures and solely focused on the victims. Imagine if all news agencies simply referred to the perpetrators as "the evil shooter" and solely stated the person did it because s/he was evil. Some shooters wouldn't care that they were considered evil, but all of them want their names and images in the press. 

I would love to say that people can fix this by simply not clicking on the articles, but unfortunately, you don't always know if an article is going to talk about the shooter or the brave souls who confronted the shooter and the victims. Everyone can complain to news agencies and block them for a month if they use shooter names or try to empathize with mass shooters. It is time for our society to stop making bad people seem justified in their action. Scientists have long realized that people who don't suffer any negative consequences for their bad actions continue doing bad actions. 

Unfortunately, bad scientists who grouped abusive practices in with spanking on the butt convinced parents they don't need to discipline their children. Worse scientists convinced everyone involved in children's lives to give them unearned rewards and praise that was not earned and to downplay half-hearted efforts. These humanists did what they could to push a lie: People are inherently good. Real science shows that people left to their own means will inherently do bad things (although the level of bad varies among them). People need to suffer consequences for their bad choices and putting a killer's name and image all over the news when that is exactly what they want is encouraging others to make the same bad choices. 

NATO Helps a Global Criminal Control Ukraine

 

By sanctioning Russia and sending weapons to Ukraine, we are helping this global criminal, to whom Hunter Biden has connections, control an entire country? (note, the citations are from U.S. newspapers):

“Igor Kolomoisky, who built his fortune during the lawless years immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union, reportedly has a controlling interest in Burisma, the Ukrainian oil and gas company which put President Biden’s son, Hunter, on its board of directors in 2014 at a salary of $50,000 per month. Kolomoisky dispatched his private army to take over companies and destroy a Russian-owned oil and gas refinery in Dnipropetrovsk in 2014, according to reports.” 

Kolomoisky also owns 70% interest in 1+1, which is the television station that ran Zelensky’s television show and paid for him to get into office with money Kolomoiaky stole from his own bank and hid in oversees accounts—that Zelensky had interest in but handed off to a buddy upon his election—however, Zelensky (perfect leader that he is) stillgets profits from those overseas accounts through his wife. 

Also, “after Mr Kolomoisky deployed hispersonal militia in Kiev to block the government from regulating his businessinterests, the [former] president [Petro Poroshenko] had no choice but to sackhim.” So, Kolomoisky made sure Poroshenko was no longer president by running Zelensky instead. Kolomoisky, a person of Jewish descent like Zelensky, allegedly funds theAzov Battalion, Aidar and other Neo-Nazi groups. At least one member of the Azov Battalion believes that once the war with Russia is over they will march on Kyiv and oust the government and wasn’tafraid to brag about this to USA today in 2015. 

Our own current secretary of state, Antony Blinken stated, “I also want toexpress concern about Kolomoyskyy’s current and ongoing efforts to undermineUkraine’s democratic processes and institutions, which pose a serious threat toits future.” 

 Ukraine is anything but a freely democratic country. Its people are fighting for it, but freely admit the corruption that is there. They are fighting for it because they are defending their country, and the west keeps telling them the lie that Russia is going to take it from them. NATO is responsible for the innocent citizens who are killed--not Russia. The United States is responsible for setting up a corrupt regime in 2014--as it has done in every other country it invaded and overthrew the government (Libya, Kosovo, Egypt, Vietnam, Korea, etc.) Just because our tactics have changed, and we now use social media and "community organizers" (read: professional riot starters) does not mean we are just in our actions. 

 This time, supplying neo-Nazis and going against Russia, is going to be our final downfall, I believe. While Russia is forming tighter bonds with China (who hasn't foolishly contributed any of its military to the Ukraine conflict), the west as a whole under NATO is dumping weapons and arms into a country that will NEVER pay them back. As we deplete our stockpiles and prevent agreed upon shipments of weapons from going to places like Taiwan because we are redistributing them to the puppets in Ukraine, we are severing ties and making ourselves militarily vulnerable. It will take decades to rebuild what we have already sent--and we are not showing signs of stopping, we are just digging into more stockpiles we may find ourselves in need of in the future.

Stop these criminal supporting warlords from destroying our country over this. Vote for anyone but a Democrat or Republican!

33.5 Million on Unemployment and People Are Whining About Sweet Tomatoes Closing Permanently

I truly don't understand America. The disconnect between reality and the fantasy they seem to live in is vast. COVID-19 wasn't deadly. My husband tested positive, and the rest of my family, including me, probably have it, too. We are fine. It is somewhere between a bad cold and a mild flu. For me, it is more like a bad sinus infection, and I have heart problems, so based on all the hype I am still expecting to end up in the hospital. But we put people out of work. 33.5 million people have lost their jobs... for this. Did we stop the spread? No. Millions of people have had it in NY and LA without any or very mild symptoms. Or, they thought they had a sinus infection and pushed through it. People who stayed inside and isolated themselves as told were more likely to end up hospitalized in NY. Not the people who went about their business as best they could. It's over. The military is packing up and heading home without treating one patient in their makeshift hospitals. Trillions of dollars have been spent-- not on improving healthcare or access to health care for the poor, but on buying unused ventilators and paying unemployment benefits for people who had jobs. Still, people following the doom and gloom of the news ignore Georgia's real numbers that have drastically decreased since they fully opened, and cry about the second wave. These are the people who have been getting paychecks--the ones that find it easy to ignore the fact 15 million people still haven't received unemployment benefits after 2 months and some people are not getting anything or only fractions of what they were once getting. People are facing foreclosure and financial doom because the government forbid them to work. Worse yet, many of these people are still so terrified about COVID-19 that they will never come out of their homes and do not care that they are not buying food or meds they need because to them, dying of hunger and their current diseases is better than a small chance of dying from COVID-19. Our economy contracted by 4% in the first quarter, and people are brushing that aside as insignificant--despite the fact we were only closed 2 weeks in the first quarter and we are going to have been closed almost 2 months or more in the second quarter. They ignore that our ability to spend all those trillions on useless things is dependent on our GDP.

But, Sweet Tomatoes, the rich person's buffet, is closing. For that, they are all sad. Not one tear was shed when food bank lines extended down the street as far as could be seen. Not one "Wow, we will miss them" for the 7 million mom and pop businesses that may never reopen. No, a rich person's buffet is the only thing to get sad sentiments. We are sick, America, and it isn't with COVID-19. It is with apathy toward our fellow man.

Why Italy and the USA have failed the Covid-19 test (part 2)

The USA has also failed. Our CDC did not enact early testing. Testing from case 1 has taken a minimum of 3 days, unless you are rich. For some reason, rich people can still go on vacation and travel throughout the country, they can get tests even when they are not sick or seriously sick (which increases the chances of a false negative), and they can get the best healthcare if they do fall ill.

However, the fact is that the average American and his or her doctors must wait up to two weeks for test results. Covid-19 usually lasts 12-15 days. People are forced out of their jobs simply because they have been "exposed." It is a bit late for this. If you have mild symptoms, you are refused a test and told you "probably have it." This is a "precaution" but illogical. If, for example, almost 12,000 people in the state of Indiana have been tested because they had serious symptoms of the illness, and only about 2000 of them ACTUALLY HAVE IT, then our prediction rates are estimating 6x more cases than what we really have.

This is why we have run out of medical supplies. The lack of testing kits and testing ability has made it so that doctors err on the side of caution and wear protective gear 6x more often than necessary. It is still forcing doctors and nurses to use gear more than needed.

Now, we have rapid tests. This means that the number of cases will drastically increase, but we are still 1-2 months out before we will be able to test anywhere near the number of people we need to test each day (at this point). The WHO has stated repeatedly that the way to contain this disease is early detection--not mass quarantine, not more ventilators. The USA created an "emergency" situation by not testing and now is continuing to play on that emergency by enacting everything they can for "support" without actually doing what is really necessary: increase testing. The state of Indiana released information that one of its many universities was going to begin testing and expected to soon be testing up to 2,500 patients each day. Two weeks later we are testing less than 2,000 statewide. If students were back at their colleges instead of holed up at home, perhaps more universities could test. Although anyone can get Covid-19, I have found no reports of anyone under the age of 30 dying in the United States, yet, so this would be a wiser use of our resources.

On top of mass shelter-in-home orders and poor testing, the US has been putting out conflicting orders and statements that do not help calm the public. In some cases it is better to say "We don't really know yet, but we are working on it" instead of saying "We know this..." and then later saying "Wait, that wasn't right." A few states have responded well to calming the panic, for example, Georgia's Covid-19 website clearly shows that about 80% of the people who have died had pre-existing conditions. In another 15%, the status of preexisting conditions is unknown. Out of the current 102 deaths that are recorded, only 4 did not have a pre-existing conditions and all of these were over the age of 55. This isn't reassuring for the sick population over 55, but for the rest of us it should be. They also report the number of cases that are hospitalized, letting people know that everyone does not end up in the hospital. The neutral, calming, blacks, blues, and grays, make it more a page for statistics than sensation. The only thing I could complain about is that there could be a few more pie graphs.

On the other hand, you have Indiana, which gets an F in webpage design. At this time, they have the number of deaths in bigger font that is blood red. The yellow and blue fonts for number of tested and number of confirmed cases fade into the background. They do not report whether the people who have died had pre-existing conditions, and they break down newly confirmed cases by age, without any reference to whether the cases are mild, moderate, or severe. Instead of the light blue Georgia used in reporting the counties with only a few cases, which puts them in the background. Indiana again has opted for a light, reddish-brown that makes counties with even 1 case stand out on the map. How much did they pay for this fear inducing visual? Probably a lot more than Georgia's basic display. Of course the governor himself says the numbers should "put the fear of God in you." As someone who has studied pandemics, they don't. Nor should they make anyone afraid if they are looked at objectively in terms of other more deadly illnesses.

Increasing fear and panic across the USA instead of quieting it means that more people are going to commit abuse, more people are going to commit suicide, and more people are going to be casualties of Covid-19 than just those who contract and die from the disease. Issuing "emergency stay-at-home" orders instead of closing state and locality borders to prevent the spread, failing to test people quickly who go to the doctor with symptoms will increase spread and continue the lack of medical supplies, and failing to diagnose and treat people early will increase the deaths. If this virus were truly a threat, the USA would be in trouble.

Being discriminated against does not "cause depression."

Depression is a complex disorder that involves genetics. Still, people can't get it out of their heads that environmental factors are the sole cause of this. 

I was recently reading and article on WebMD that stated "discrimination for any reason may lead to depression and anxiety." The article was implying that Homosexuals have a higher incidence of depression and anxiety because they are discriminated against and the victim of hate crimes. I take issue with this. Consider the research on minorities, especially Hispanics and those from India. White people have more depression than them, yet still WebMD decides to push an agenda that is not helpful to people suffering from depression or to the homosexual community.

Yes, some external factors can affect temporary depression. For example, after a spouse dies, it is normal for people to go through a period of depression that is a reaction to that incident. These people need help just as people who suffer from long-term depression. 

People who have long-term depression have different needs than those suffering from temporary depression. Long-term depression is GENETIC. Although people with long-term depression may have periods of time that are better than others, social effects do not affect it. Why? Because even in good times a person with depression has a brain that is wired to see only the bad. 

Now, it is perfectly reasonable to believe that people who are homosexual are genetically depressed. But saying or even implying they are depressed because they are discriminated against is bologna. It implies homosexuals don't need to seek help for their depression because they cannot do anything to get through it since it is caused by the people around them. I understand WebMD is not an authoritative or even good source for medical information, but it is a source that many use. 

If you can't motivate yourself to get out of bed some mornings, if you feel as if no one likes you, if you have angry outbursts that feel as if some chemical is flooding your brain and you can no longer control your actions, you might have genetic depression. Genetic depression is like diabetes in that you need a doctor to help you control it as well as therapy and changes in your lifestyle. Genetic depression is not about whether you are female, or homosexual, Chinese or Greek, it is a serious condition that needs treatment. WebMD would do best not to take that lightly.

The Story I Hope Finally Gets a Voice in the Midst of This Latest Sexual Harassment Fad

As a woman, I can count the number of times my rear end has been "brushed" or grabbed. Nor would I want to. Is it acceptable for anyone to violate another person like that- no. However, in our nation it is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. That means, I am not going to report a person to the authorities for grabbing my rear unless I have proof he or she did it intentionally. Court-worthy proof.
Now some lady is complaining that a guy sexually harassed her when he asked her to go to a hotel room with her. Really? I think that claim belittles the thousands (millions?) of women who are not given any choice and raped each year. I would love it if the United States enacted the death penalty for serial rapists. But just a guy asking you to go to his hotel should be a freedom of speech thing. Just ignore it or tell him to bug off or ask your superiors to discipline him. Or here's a better one- flat out tell him he is a creep, and he needs to knock it off because it isn't funny, and you aren't interested. Most guys are actually clueless when it comes to crossing the line verbally.

I have been what I classify as sexually harassed more than once in my life. Once was witnessed- but none of the witnesses did anything. The witnessed incident could have gone to court if I had pursued it, but would any of the witnesses have done anything. It was two other women who had probably been putting up with it much longer than I had (and probably much worse situations). I simply quit that job. Should have I hired a lawyer- I don't know. I was only 18. Would I hire a lawyer now and try to drag his name through the mud? Absolutely not. It is done. It is over. The witnesses have probably long forgotten the incident. What other reason could any woman have to come out for the first time after a statue of limitations is up and accuse a man of something like that? The only reason I can think of is to defame him and that is not real justice because if the incident did not happen the way you remember it there is nothing that will ever clear his name again.
But as more and more allegations of sexual assault appear, two things came to my mind. In many cases, only one or two women are coming forward. Please. If a guy is a womanizer, he does it to multiple women every day and there will be evidence. Why aren't more coming forward? Also, if a guy did this 20 or 30 years ago- has he changed? If he has, once again, should he be socially punished for issues he might have had when he was younger? In my opinion, if one of those issues was simply asking a woman to a hotel, I don't think the answer is yes. Rape- yes, always.

If you are raped, go to a hospital and get examined immediately. If you survive a rape, there is nothing that should prevent you from doing this. Begin the long trial process immediately. Get a rapist off the street. And politically we need to push for a death penalty for serial rapists. Most people who are raped end up committing suicide because of the rape-why shouldn't a rapist get the same penalty as a murderer? I guarantee men would think twice before forcing a woman to do something against her will if we started executing those who did.

My biggest complaint about these allegations and my biggest reason for disgust with everyone praising these women comes down to one person who really does deserve praise: Corey Feldman. Corey Feldman was sexually abused as a child actor by many men in Hollywood, and he has repeatedly tried to draw attention to this fact. But people have ignored him for years. Why isn't he touted as a brave man? Why isn't his story considered the first to bring out the problem with the Film Industry? Corey Feldman told police officers about these men years ago, but the police refused to investigate. Afterward, the men were both arrested for being pedophiles, and now are wanted men. How many children would have the police saved if they listened? My hope is that Corey will finally be able to draw attention to his cause.

Las Vegas Shooting- Why is talk limited to banning guns?

Another American mass shooting and all you hear about is banning guns and gun regulation. Why? Should there be better laws, such as those that bring people purchasing 33 guns in one year to the notice of the authorities (you would think with all the tracking in our society they would already have noticed something like this)? The problem is that I truly don't believe guns are the root of the problem, but the mass media (which is, in my opinion one major contributor) has too much money in politicians pockets--and would they really implicate themselves?

I want to see a ban on M rated video games. I want to see a ban on what prime time television can play. I want to see R movie ratings enforced and movie theaters that allow 5-year olds into R movies shut down. Television didn't become widely available in the United States until the mid-1950s. In the 1960's mass shootings doubled from the numbers of the 1950's. School shootings doubled in the 1950's from the 1940's. The American Psychological Association has done massive research in an attempt to fight against media and still we are always told after mass shootings that media is innocent-it is the guns. Violent media is "art." Violent media is "speech."

The very first M rated video game was also the video game the Columbine shooters loved. They dedicated an entire AOL page to it and creating new levels of it. How many more mass shootings can be traced directly to the media?

Mr. Paddock was born in the 1950's, just in time to watch a lifetime of violence. The media says there wasn't a motive or warning signs. I think anyone who suddenly purchases 33 guns in a year has a warning sign glaring over them. Every time you get a background check, you would think someone would be watching. Even if they aren't, that sounds like a warning to me.

In my opinion, he was a gambler. He might have played the numbers, but he wasn't against cheating in subtle ways. He asked his girlfriend which machines were "loose." He only played on machines, and interacted with people as little as possible. He felt the world owed him something. Sounds like some sort of mental disorder to me. Based on what else I know of him from the media, narcissism, OCD, and antisocial personality disorder seem to be possibilities. I don't debate that better mental health services that encourage people to seek mental health evaluations are important. Laws that allow adults to be checked into mental facilities based on their history and their current symptoms instead of whether or not they are going to immediately harm someone or themselves and the hard evidence you have to have for this (its difficult to come by hard evidence of anything a person is going to do especially if they are a little off).

But the troublesome matter is that mental health care can't be changed overnight. Gun regulations won't go into force overnight, and they certainly are not dealing with the REAL problem. The real problem is that media is making our society less caring and more desensitized to violence. Even news agencies are helping potential shooters by telling them what the last guy did wrong.

I don't know if the police will ever release and official motive, but it might be that gambling became too easy. Maybe he wanted another thrill. Whatever his motive, it is time we stop trying to ban guns without first banning M video games.

Are Generic Anti-Depressants as Good as Name Brands?

My husband has been on an anti-depressant (Cymbalta) for years. Aside from the initial two-week adjustment period, it has worked great. Over the summer, he switched to the generic to save money. Slowly, over a two-week period, he fell back into his old patterns: getting angry about nothing, popping ibuprofen daily for pain issues, and being generally depressed. It finally came to the point where I asked, "Honey, have you taken your anti-depressant today?" To which he growled, "Yes, I have!"

Because I could see that something was seriously wrong (he did not notice), I did some research and discovered many complaints exist online about people taking antidepressants who have issues when they switch to generic. This was around the time of Robin Williams committing suicide, so I began to wonder if Mr. Williams had not also recently switched to generics.

The day we switched back to the name brand (at $12 per pill out of our pocket mind you), he was fine. No more ibuprofen, no more grumpiness, and no "readjustment" period. I reported the issue to the FDA immediately. The FDA told me that generics can vary their binders by 20% from the original. The generic drug company (who also contacted me) told me that some people metabolize these different binders more quickly than what they metabolize the originals - thus leading to a serious issue with the extended release system. Where the name brand will keep releasing slowly throughout the day to maintain your blood level of the drug, the generic may end up dumping it all too fast. This means you will have up and down medication blood levels. Based on my research since, this only effects 2% of the population (according to the few scientifically published studies on the topic). However, when you are dealing with a drug that prevents you from killing yourself, 2%, in my opinion, is significant. Ironically, the reason ALL anti-depressants carry a block box warning about increased suicide is because the suicide attempt rates among placebo vs. antidepressants is 2% greater in anti-depressants. I have to wonder if they were using the generic for those studies?

Over the summer, my son also had to go on anti-depressants because he began making some very depressive statements. The doctor naturally prescribed a generic for Lexapro. I thought nothing about it. For six-months, my son hid from me, my husband, his family doctor (the prescriber), and his psychologist, that he actually felt worse on the drugs because "he didn't want to change them." He began smoking rolled index cards (at 12 years old). He began getting in trouble daily at school, from fights to talking out of turn. He also began to think that no adult cared about him because we did not recognize that something was wrong. The only thing we thought was wrong (aside from puberty) was that his ADHD medications were not working - which we upped.

In January, my son began behaving very bizarrely in school. He came home, and when we collected his iPhone at 6:00 PM for the night, he went ballistic. First he ran away, and we went and got him. Then he attempted to hang himself from the top bunk with a bathrobe belt. Thankfully, I heard gagging noises and went in and found him before he passed out.

When you are on anti-depressants, you should NEVER feel like you want to kill yourself. This is the sign your anti-depressants are NOT WORKING and you NEED NEW ONES. However, you, like my son, are probably an expert at hiding your feelings. Please, tell someone - especially your doctor - if you have this feeling. Many people may care about you, but the ways they are trying to help you may not work unless you spell out to them what is wrong.

My son, of course, was hospitalized, and his medicine was changed to name brand Zoloft. In less than a week in the hospital, he went from being withdrawn, uncooperative, and self-harming to realizing EVERYTHING (from smoking to the suicide attempt) was wrong. The way he explained it was: "I didn't want to do those things, but I couldn't stop myself." The doctors and nurses at the hospital, who initially took my statements that it was a medication issue with a grain of salt, were amazed at his recovery. They told us on entry that the average stay was 14 days. My son was out in a week.

Ironically, the pharmacy (despite the fact it is in their computer to only give name brand Zoloft and despite the fact that is the way the doctor writes the script) gave my son generic this month "on accident." My husband picked it up and didn't notice. After several weeks on it, my son was again suicidal- this time over a missing tablet. He also began to self-harm. No one will ever convince me it wasn't the generic- the day he went back on name brand, he came in and told me how happy he was because he was feeling so much better.

Most insurances, including Medicaid and Medicare, do not want to pay from name brand medications. Some will require you to actually have a negative reaction before allowing you to get on it. Report any adverse reactions to your doctors and insurance companies IMMEDIATELY.

Most importantly, if you have had a bad reaction to a generic anti-depressant - i.e. you were on a name brand, you switched to the generic and had awful "side-effects," and then you were immediately relieved of these side effects once you went back to the name brand - you really must report it here. There is a list of what you can and can't report on the left, and you click on the "Consumer/ Patient" button on the right to get started. It takes some time and you will need to go to the pharmacy and ask them for a printout with the name of the manufacturer, the strength of the generic drug, the NDC number and the lot number to fill out the second page. However, if enough people are having trouble with this and report it, we can make a change in the way generic anti-depressants are treated. 

Our society has become very focused on the need for mental health reform. However, we will continue to struggle with school shootings and other violent crimes (more than 50% of all prisoners have mental health issues that are untreated) as long as we keep thinking mental health issues, such as bi-polar, depression, and ADHD, are all "in someone's head." People on Medicaid and Medicare should be able to receive better mental health treatment (i.e. the government should loosen its purse strings so more mental health specialists are inclined to participate in their programs and so those participating don't end up filing for bankruptcy), and they should be able to receive name brand mental health drugs if the doctor can support one previous negative reaction to the generic. What may seem initially costly will save money on many levels in the end. It will also save families and loved ones much trauma.