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POPSThe PTSD Nation - America the Traumatized This breaking of the national psyche was bound to happen; it's been decades in the making. American exceptionalism -- the idea that we are somehow better and more blessed than any other people on the face of the earth -- was bound to fail as our nation, like every other before it, found itself caught in the grinding wheels of history. The 2000 election, 9/11, Enron and WorldCom, Afghanistan, Iraq on a lie, Abu Ghraib, the USA Patriot Act, Guantánamo, Katrina and near economic collapse: each of these -- and many, many others -- challenged our sense of national identity, giving the lie to who we thought we were, and compromising a sense of safety, however delusional, that we once enjoyed. No longer were Americans exempt from the perils that face other nations. sneaked up behind us and whacked us in the head.
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POPSSavant who inspired Rain Man dies 'Share him with the world' Hoffman met Kim Peek while playing the role of Rain Man and was impressed by his ability to remember everything that was said to him. Hoffman advised Fran Peek, then his son's sole caregiver, not to hide his son away. "Dustin Hoffman said to me, you have to promise me one thing about this guy, share him with the world," Fran Peek recalled. Kim Peek eventually went on tour, demonstrating his abilities to dispel misconceptions about mental disability.
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POPSRitalin Linked With Sudden Death of Children "Comprehensive studies over the years have revealed that while drugs like Ritalin visibly calm children, these drugs destroy their delicate, developing nervous systems and can permanently cripple their ability to function as normal human beings."
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POPSHidden Sensory System Discovered in the Skin The human sensory experience is far more complex and nuanced than previously thought, according to a groundbreaking new study published in the December 15 issue of the journal Pain. In the article, researchers at Albany Medical College, the University of Liverpool and Cambridge University report that the human body has an entirely unique and separate sensory system aside from the nerves that give most of us the ability to touch and feel. Surprisingly, this sensory network is located throughout our blood vessels and sweat glands, and is for most people, largely imperceptible.
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POPSPassionate Love compared the lover's serotonin levels with those from the OCD group and another group who were free from both passion and mental illness. Levels of serotonin in both the obsessives' blood and the lovers' blood were 40 percent lower than those in normal subjects. ... Translation: Love and mental illness may be difficult to tell apart. ... "Why doesn't passionate love last? ... Biologically speaking, the reasons romantic love fades may be found in the way our brains respond to the surge and pulse of dopamine ... cocaine users describe the phenomenon of tolerance: the brain adapts to the excessive input of the drug ...
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POPSpolice procedures a court finally acknowledged this as a frequent enough problem so as to have to rule on it
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POPSAre Americans a Broken People? Does knowing the truth of their abuse set people free when they are deep in these abuse syndromes? Has such a demoralization happened in the U.S.?Do some totalitarians actually want us to hear how we have been screwed because they know that humiliating passivity in the face of obvious oppression will demoralize us even further? What forces have created a demoralized, passive, dis-couraged U.S. population? Schools and Universities: Mental Health Institutions: Television: Commericalism of Damn Near Everything: Can anything be done to turn this around?
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POPSHealth Bill Creates A Massive Cash Crunch, Then Bankrupts Many Insurers
Insurers are not allowed to take into account differential risks based on pre-existing conditions. And the premium differentials based on such matters as age and tobacco use are smaller than the market spreads. If too many customers demand coverage from a given insurer to insure efficiently, it's the government that will decide how many they have to keep and who they are. Next, it's the government that requires extensive coverage including "ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance abuse disorder services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices, laboratory services, preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management, pediatric services, including oral and vision care." The price squeeze gets even tighter because in every required area of care a collection of government standards will help set the minimum level of required services.
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POPSBy imagining many possible worlds fiction can chang our Minds "For more than two thousand years people have insisted that reading fiction is good for bookyou. Aristotle claimed that poetry—he meant the epics of Homer and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, which we would now call fiction—is a more serious business than history. History, he argued, tells us only what has happened, whereas fiction tells us what can happen, which can stretch our moral imaginations and give us insights into ourselves and other people. This is a strong argument for schools to continue to focus on the literary arts, not just history, science, and social studies. But is the idea of fiction being good for you merely wishful thinking?'
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POPSAbortion Legalized In Spain Abortion was nevertheless widely available because women can assert mental distress as the sole ground for accessing the procedure, regardless of the progress of the pregnancy. More than 100,000 abortions are conducted in Spain each year, and most of them are early-term procedures that fell under the mental distress category. This bill, however, is important, because it erases the threat of jail time and declares abortion to be a woman's right. This is important, because in the past there have been serious consequences for women, doctors and clinics.
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POPSDrugging Our Kids to Enrich MDs and Big Pharma We Americans will do anything for money; outsource our jobs, imprison the poor, rip off our Grannys, militarize our sons, pimp our daughters, drug our kids. We call it capitalism and praise it to the skies. We denigrate, scapegoat and cast out anyone who dares to criticize. More from the article below: ""All these drugs may curb a target symptom slightly more effectively than a placebo does for a short period of time, say six weeks," Whitaker said. However, what "you find with every class of these psychiatric drugs is a worsening of the target symptom of depression or psychosis or anxiety, over the long term, compared to placebo-treated patients." "So even on the target symptoms, there's greater chronicity and greater severity of symptoms," he reports, "And you see a fairly significant percentage of patients where new and more severe psychiatric symptoms are triggered by the drug itself."
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POPSWhat I Notice About Palin-Bashers 5. A lot of them are ready to vouch for other women in power who are relatively homely and frumpy, like Hillary Clinton. 6. They breathe hard and their pulse quickens. I haven't run into too many people who are ready to calmly explain Sarah Palin's lack of qualifications. 7. Their laughter, in response to Palin jokes, is forced. 8. Their lofty opinions of the minimal requirements for the offices Palin has sought, or might seek, is selective. When the topic of conversation shifts to Joe Biden, suddenly it seems the Vice Presidency doesn't demand a whole lot out of anyone. 9. They don't seem to think it takes a whole lot to govern Alaska, or to even live there. They don't appear to think very highly of Alaskans. 10. A lot of people claim to like her personally, just don't "feel" (see Item #4 above) that she's "right";
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POPS Crazy Hate Souvenir Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy is recovering in hospital after an assault left his face covered in blood following a rally in Milan. He suffered two broken teeth, a minor nose fracture and cuts to his lip after being struck by a man wielding a souvenir model of the city's cathedral. Mr Berlusconi, 73, tried to assure supporters afterwards he was OK. The alleged attacker, who has a history of mental illness, has been charged with throwing the souvenir. Massimo Tartaglia, 42, had no previous criminal record, police were quoted as saying.
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POPSVan Gogh's Letters This website is a treasure! One of the great Masters of Art is revealed in his letters. A couple excerpts below: "Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Wilhelmina van Gogh (19 September 1889) ... together with that copy after Delacroix. It is splendid weather outside - but for a long time - two months to be exact - I have not left my room; I don't know why. What I need is courage, and this often fails me. And it is also a fact that since... Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 10 December 1889) ... - and be sure that I think of you often, here where I spend my days more withdrawn into myself than now and then seems to me desirable. Yet I have decidedly no reason at all to complain, feeling stronger and healthier...
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POPSThe Drum Beat Of Constant Fear "But then there is the opposite view that this entire war mentality and progression of war will come to an end when the trillions of dollars that have fueled war will dry up as America is driven closer and closer to economic collapse. The irony of that possibility is this; that unnecessary war which is so very costly and damaging to our economic stability will be the very vehicle that destroys itself in the end."
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