Markham's Behavioral Health

Quote of the day

"The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places."

Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms

Sean Hannity gets it wrong prompting killings in Knoxville

On July 29, 2008 Candace Chellew-Hodge wrote and open letter to Sean Hannity on Religious Dispatches.

“If the Left succeeds in gaining and retaining more power, the well-being of future generations will be at greater peril. I fear (our children) will inherit a nation that is less free and less secure than the nation we inherited from the last generation. It is therefore our job to stop them. Not just debate them, but defeat them.” — Sean Hannity

Dear Sean:

I found these words on page 11 of your book Let Freedom Ring. This book, and similar ones from your conservative colleagues Bill O’Reilly and Michael Savage, was found in the home of a man who read those words, internalized those words, and then loaded his shotgun. He took 76 rounds of ammunition with him to a place of worship—a place where he knew he could do his job to stop and defeat some liberals. At the Unitarian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, Jim Adkisson, a fan of yours, killed two people, wounded five others, and left an entire congregation and country shaken by his actions. Actions prompted, as he testified in his own written notes, by the ideas contained in your words.

"The Red Menace", "Terrorists", used to manipulate Americans into compliance as their pockets get picked by the plutocrats - Capitalism out of control

58,000 of my peers were killed in Viet Nam. Hundreds of thousands were injured and came home with PTSD. Millions of Viet Namese were killed, for what? Ostensibly, a domino theory that communism had to be stopped in Asia or it would come to the US. Americans were convinced by the politicians during the cold war that the bogey man was at large and threatened American security.

Bottom line it was good for business selling billions of dollars of weapons and drafting hundreds of thousands of poor baby boomers so they couldn't raise too much hell at home getting high, listening to seditious music like rock and roll, and marching for civil rights.

Viet Nam was another pre-emptive and immoral war which the US lost and should have lost because it was wrong. The plutocrats manipulated the public most of whom were too stupid to see through them and they elected Richard Nixon, of all people, to end the war which he had no intention of doing and it took him 6 years to finally get around to it amidst his paranoid criminal activities which lead to his resignation to avoid impeachment.

Whether it's the Red Menace or Terrorists it is interesting how easily the public is manipulated by politicians and corporations into perpetrating evil policies for economic reasons. Once again, when people tell you it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing, you can bet your last buck, its the money.

Mammon once again reigns as the American God. Greed rules and when in bed with the politicians human suffering and death ascend to horrific proportions. Another example of capitalism out of control.

Quote of the day

"1964 - Two US Navy destroyers report being attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. US President Lyndon Johnson uses the attack to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which allows Johnson to take 'all measures necessary' to rapidly escalate the conflict without formally declaring war. Years later, it would be revealed that the attacks reported by the US ships never actually happened."

Adbusters magazine, #79

Statins Associated with Less Cognitive Decline

I take my simvastatin every night before I go to bed and my mind is like a steel trap and I'm 62. Is it the simvastatin or am I just a sharp guy? I have a little CRS (can't remember shit) though. My colleague and friend, Garry, says its "nominal aphasia". While I can't remember the person's name I always remember what my problem is called.

The study appeared in the July 28,2008 issue of the journal, Neurology, and the summary appears on Physician First Watch on July 28, 2008. Here is what the Physician Watch article says:

Elderly people on statins showed a lower rate of cognitive decline than those not taking them, according to a prospective observational study in Neurology.

Researchers followed a population-based cohort over 5 years, examining the participants' medicine cabinets for prescription drug use and measuring their cognitive status annually. The cohort comprised nearly 1700 Mexican American subjects, all over age 60, roughly a quarter of whom took statins at some time during the study.

By the end of the study, those who'd taken statins were about half as likely to have developed either dementia or cognitive impairment without dementia as others in the cohort.

The authors point out that there have been no primary prevention trials of statins for dementia. Writing in Journal Watch Cardiology, Joel M. Gore says that such studies are needed "before statins are routinely deployed

I wonder if John McCain takes Statins? Watching him speak has left me with the impression that he has come cognitive difficulties.

Statins Associated with Less Cognitive Decline - Physician's First Watch.

Capitalism out of control leads to the deterioration of the American soul

Most Americans are ignorant about foreign affairs. They believe in the myth that their country is pure, holy, always right and never wrong, advocates for freedom and democracy around the world. This, of course, is not true, is far from the truth, and is contradicted by the facts.

The United States is greedy, materialistic, and has advocated for and operated on its economic interests in foreign affairs since the second world war. The United States is run by a bunch of plutocrats who are in bed with the corporations, and the politicians do the corporations bidding for the corporations support in elections, and then the politicians are expected to support the corporate interests and not the welfare of the people the politicians were elected to serve.

The quote of the day today gives a brief history of the U.S. activities in fucking with Iran. It goes on to this day and is about oil.

Perhaps, even if Americans were knowledgeable and not ignorant, still the American public would support its government's colonial manipulations in the service of capitalism trampling on the rights of others around the world. Americans are a pretty greedy bunch who serve Mammon diligently with Black Friday being one of the highest holy days of the year. When terror and anxiety fill the public after 9/11, the President of the United States does not tell his subjects to turn to God, but rather he tells them to go shopping.

Greed and materialism fuel the American psyche and the daily report of the stock market performance has taken the place of daily prayer.

Considering capitalism out of control and the required trampling of human rights and human dignity in the process, it pains me to witness the deterioration of the American soul dissipating while worshiping at the altar of the golden calf.

Quote of the day

"1953 - At the behest of the British government, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves a covert operation to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq, Iran's democratically elected leader. Mosaddeq had been a driving force behind the nationalization of British oil holdings in Iran. With the help of British and American funds, along with direct CIA assistance, his government was replaced by the dictatorship of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlav, whose rule would last until the Islamic revolution of 1979."

Adbusters magazine, #79

The collective unconscious and net neutrality- the connection

Andrew Boyd in his book, Daily Afflictions, defines "The Collective Unconscious"  this way: "An unspoken, consensual hallucination of social order that permits the individual to mask any responsibility he or she might feel for government wrongdoing or social ills in a web of numbed-out apathy and mass denial." p.91

Having read Rick Shenkman's book, Just How Stupid Are We?, I have thought a great deal about what is wrong with "We, The People". I am coming to the conclusion that we are not stupid in the intellectual sense although there is plenty of evidence that we are, but rather than we are unaware as a people and that, in this age, is causing great problems.

The problem that The People face is not an intellectual one but rather a psychological and spiritual one.

In a sense, Americans have been brainwashed and we are in denial because of the soporific effect of our materialism and greed. Because of materialism and greed we are willing to allow Wal Mart to come into our communities and destroy our local economies, we are willing to destroy the planet driving gas gussling vehicles, we are willing to discard tons of plastics and garbage that pollute our lands and seas, we are willing to let our children become obese and narcissistic in ways that would leave their grandparents and great grandparents horrified, we are willing to elect leaders who promise us the moon and then wreak havoc on the world for spurious reasons while forcing us and future generations to pay for their exploitive policies.

The collective unconscious allows us to continue to live in a delusional world that becomes increasingly dysfunctional because of the collusion of political and corporate power used to keep Americans anesthetized on cheap material goods, fast food, and entertainment.

There are pockets of awareness but no social institutions which nurture it except perhaps blogs on the Internet. Net neutrality is a huge issue upon which the future of the soul of America is based. Without the Internet, the information, encouragement, and inspiration for we The People to become conscious is severely constrained.

One of the most important campaign issues for 2008 is net neutrality. Let's bring this issue to the fore for once and for all. The soul of America depends on the net staying free. It is the hope of awakening the slumbering masses who have been sedated by shopping.

Video well worth watching lasts 10:24

Quote of the day

"The devil can cite scripture for his purpose."

William Shakespeare

Capitalism out of control

I have started reading Naomi Klein's book, The Shock Doctrine, and it is one of those epiphany experiences where the light bulb goes on and I think to myself, "Holy Shit, that explains it."

Shock doctrine is a very exciting book for me because Klein brings a lot of events together with government policies which finally make sense for me. My initial impression is that the title of the book could also have been, "Capitalism out of control: How greed destroyed America and wreaked havoc in the rest of the world."

In the name of capitalism, the U.S. govenment has been increasingly privatizing previous government functions by outsourcing these services to private companies making political supporters rich on the public's dollar. It is a neat scheme to keep the politicians in power giving the public's money away to their cronies crowing about less government while they rob the public coffers and turn power over to the corporations to run the country.

It is time that Americans became aware of the new paradigm since they are ones paying for it and suffering under it.

I will be writing more about this topic in coming weeks and will tag these posts "Capitalism out of control".