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cerruleanskyatsunset's comments:
on The Oregon State Hospital Today
For Centuries all societies had fortress-like insane assylums, nunneries, monasteries and crazy houses for the mentally ill. Or the attic apartment for your crazy uncle. Sometimes they were treated as fools, witches, magical sorcerers or devil possessed. Sometimes they were given the leadership crown--ie Nero, George III, Hitler, Stalin, Quaddafi, Uday Hussein, Robert Mugabe.
In the past 40 years we have had miraculous breakthroughs in psychiatric medication rivaling the age of antibiotics. Mental illness can be managed like a benign chronic illness like diabetes, HIV infection or hypertension. The mentally ill when properly medicated can live in society, in homes with their families, and even hold a job.
95% of mental illness can be managed successfully as an outpatient. It is a small minority that needs institutionalization, but they are very debilitated.
The other problem with chronic mental medication is how often patients fall off their medication regime. They are otherwise healthy. A lot of them are in denial about mental illness. They think the rest of the world is loony and they are the only sane person on the planet. And why can't they have a fun night drinking a fifth of vodka. And a small heroin injection will really cap a day. And I don't need this medication anyway. And the CIA is bugging my thoughts.
And the medication when in harmonious balance with brain chemistry, falls to subtherapeutic levels. And there is rebound psychosis. And it takes weeks to rebuild the medication effect in an expensive inpatient enviorment.
That is why the schizophrenics live in alleys, streets, and under bridges and bounce backto insane assylum in Salem and back to the streets and back to Salem like a loony, red, rubber ball.
The solution is long term, fail proof medication. We will know our mental illness treatments are successful when the homeless no longer populate the streets. We all need to know about mental illness because it affects us EVERYDAY.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Live from Salem
Kick up the Kicker.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Rebroadcast: Math Appeal
Mathematics is the universal language. And it is one discipline where there is an absolute correct answer. You cannot massage, mollycoddle or whitewash an answer with bs.
And it is probably the fairest comparison for international student achievement. And unfortunately the truth is stark.
In the 2006 International Assessment of Maths Skill of OECD Nations, American students ranked not in the top 5, top 10, top 20 or even top 30 places. It ranked 32nd, just ahead of Turkey and Mexico. I guess we are benefiting from cross border immigration in other ways as our education systems converge.
Students aren't used to doing homework. And with video gaming, the Internet, Facebook, Tweeting, Texting, digital music, and 3D TV, students spend 4-6 hours on media everyday. There is no time for learning.
Here is a simple solution that will never be implemented. Math, Engineering and Science are problem-solving based. Every night, students do 10 problems and work out their solution on paper. Then they can have their gadgets, txting and media. I guess to some this sounds like human rights abuse. Just call it the old-fashioned way that lead to great American achievements such as the Apollo Moon Landing.
Our weak math, science and engineering education has lead a great nation into decline.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on International Students in Oregon
TOm,
Check your facts. Several errors of fact indicate you are grossly misimformed.
1. It was a Martin Luther King Parade for Black Celebration.
2. Suspect is a Nazi sympathizer or Fascist. Not a Republican party consort.
3. This was more remote than last week. March 9, 2011. More like 20 days ago.
4. He was a former Army enlistee with nutty ideas. Sound familiar?
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Changing Child Sex Crime Law
Let's say there was a 15 minute rape ephisode over 15 years ago.
IF you cannot "Get over it", proclaim how your life is ruined yesterday, today and tommorrow, how you are depressed and sad EVERYDAY and have suicide thoughts weekly, how this affects with your ability to have a normal relationship and be a good parent, how it ruins the life of your children and grandchildren and unborn generations, and how you have NO future.
Guess what? Your life IS ruined.
Whether fondling, rape, assault, bb pellet to the eye, kidnapping, torture, attempted murder, shooting, knifing and murder. NOTHING will undo a Crime.
Get Over It. Stop being a victim and start being a human being. If you let this issue dominate your psyche and your life.....IT WILL DOMINATE YOUR LIFE.
We are all dealt a set of cards in life. Character is how we respond to challenges.
Live life.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Changing Child Sex Crime Law
No person goes through life without experiencing some tough times. To dwell on a wrong or injustice for months, years, decades, and sometimes multiple lifetimes(generational remembrance) is unhealthy.
For instance, a victim of a gun shot wound, is NOT encouraged to remember and re-live the trauma daily for years--they are urged to heal heal physically and emotionally and not prolong the wound for years. They are given a few months maximum to be sad or weepy.
Knowledge is remembering. Wisdom is selecting what to remember and what to forget.
A bigger waste than a 15 minute rape event, is 30 years of weekly counseling for PTSD for a victim trapped in victimhood.
And if Happiness is the Goal, sometimes Happiness is about Forgetting. Study the Joy in children.
Experience is not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you. Sometimes the best advice is "Get over it."
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Finding Work
Is MONSTER.Com, on line super job site, a boom or a bust?
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Finding Work
Sometimes while waiting for Mr. Goodbar, you have to settle for Mr. Goodenough.
There are fast food jobs, hotel staff and entry level cashier jobs that go begging.
In a tight job market, ANY job must be considered.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Intervention in Libya
We are addicted to Oil.
We are despised in the Middle East as Infidels worse than Dogs.
We must embrace our foes, strongman dictators, and bestial leaders because of our dependence on Oil
End Oil Addiction.
Disengage from the Region.
Let them do their own tribal war thing, sectarian violence, self brand of torture, and genocide and live with responsibility.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Intervention in Libya
No such condemnation or intervention has followed other cases of equally horrendous violence against civilians and peaceful demonstrators . Examples include the Israeli bombing and shelling of defenseless Palestinians in Gaza
Maybe you should check out the latest headlines of a deadly bus bombing of innocent civilians in Jerusalem this morning. Terrorism. Sometimes facts make our statements phony.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Oregon's Japanese Community
The Average American cannot distinguish a Japanese, Chinese or Korean by appearance, language or written script.
This is a major faux pas in these oppositional and competitive nations. Consider by GDP, China is #2 in the world, Japan is # 3 and Korea is larger than most EU nations. Two of these are important military allies. China and Japan are the #1 and #2 underwriters of our record national debt. President Obama characterizes the US-China Relation as the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st Century. All of them are major trading partners. At home, we are surrounded by their products, handiwork and craft.
Our ignorance is glaring if we presume to be a globally competitive and globally cooperative. Yes there are differences and to them the gulfs are as wide as the Grand Canyon. Maybe this is a reason why we are not successful exporters to Asian markets.
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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