This is so sad. Ever since the Reagan era, mental health services have been inaccessible to a large segment of the population, particularly the poor and disadvantaged. And especially now the embrace of austerity by our Republican overlords is taking a toll. A deep one.

Via Yahoo! News:

Suicide is on the increase in rural America--nowhere so much as in western mountain states like Idaho, Wyoming and New Mexico. Mental health professionals attribute it in part to cutbacks in Medicaid funding, to the recession and to the culture of the rural West.

In Idaho, somebody kills himself every 35 hours, according to a 2009 report to Idaho's governor by the state's Council on Suicide Prevention. Their report calls suicide "a major public health issue" having a "devastating effect" on Idaho's families, churches, businesses and even schools: 65 students aged 10 and 18 killed themselves in a recent five-year period.

Recently, a county sheriff in Bonneville told the Idaho Falls Post Register that his department was getting more suicide calls than in 2010—a year in which 290 Idahoans took their own lives. "We're in a spike right now," he says.

Historically the suicide rate in rural states has been higher than in urban ones. According to the most recent national data available, Alaska has the highest rate, at 24.6 suicides per 100,000 people. Next comes Wyoming (23.3), followed by New Mexico (21.1), Montana (21.0) and Nevada (20.2). Idaho ranks 6th, at 16.5. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Idahoans aged 15-34. Only accidents rank higher.

Kathie Garrett, co-chairman of the Idaho Council on Suicide Prevention, says the problem has gotten only worse since the recession. "The poor economy and unemployment—those put a lot of stress on people's lives," she explains. To save money, people skip doctor visits and cut back on taking prescribed medications. Cuts in Medicaid have reduced the services available to the mentally ill.

Assuming the Affordable Care Act withstands a Supreme Court challenge, Medicaid funding from the federal government will increase substantially, but for these people, it's too late. Between the economy and lack of access to mental health services, some feel overwhelmed and miserable, particularly at this time of year.

If you know someone suffering, please encourage them to call a suicide hotline or reach out to someone for help. The national suicide hotline number is 1-800-273-8255.

I have a friend who was hospitalized for a while with suicidal depression after taking Chantix, so I've been wary of this drug for a while. Remember, never assume you're getting the full story about any drug less than ten years old. Since our government agencies rely so absurdly on companies reporting their own side effects (and we know how well that works out!), do your own research:

Hundreds of reports of suicides, psychotic reactions and other serious problems tied to the popular stop-smoking drug Chantix were left out of a crucial government safety review because Pfizer Inc., the drug’s manufacturer, submitted years of data through “improper channels.”

Some 150 suicides — more than doubling those previously known — were among 589 delayed reports of severe issues turned up in a new analysis by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

“We’ve had a major breakdown in safety surveillance,” said Thomas J. Moore, the ISMP senior scientist who analyzed the data. The serious problems — including reports of completed suicides, suicide attempts, aggression and hostility and depression — had been mixed among some 26,000 records of non-serious side effects such as nausea and rashes, with some dating back to 2006, the year Chantix, or varenicline, was approved.

They echo previous claims that the drug can induce extreme reactions in people trying to quit cigarettes, including vivid nightmares, crippling depression and sudden, violent outbursts.

“It’s really chilling,” said Moore, who analyzed 26 Chantix reactions in a paper published in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of Pharmacotherapy. "This seems to unleash something in people. It can be violence to anything around."

recovering liberal
Support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence in defense of Islam has dropped since 2002 by 34 percentage points in Lebanon, 12 points in Indonesia and 8 points in Pakistan, according to the latest survey from Pew Global Attitudes Project.

In the poll released last Thursday, about half of Muslims in Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco said that attacks against Americans and their allies are justified.

On a positive note, the poll also showed that confidence in bin Laden has fallen by double-digit margins in Indonesia, Morocco and Lebanon since 2003. In Lebanon, only 2% now express confidence in him. Sadly, this is offset by Jordan and Pakistan, where more than 50% say they that have confidence in him.

Most importantly, in the nine Western nations polled, fears about radical Islam are tied to perceptions of Muslim communities within those countries. Resident Muslims were seen as having a strong and growing sense of Islamic identity, which most of those surveyed see as a bad thing.

In conclusion, while most of those polled in the United States and other Western Nations claim to have favorable views of Muslims, those in predominantly Muslim countries had mixed views of Christians and very negative views of Jews.

Support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence in defense of Islam has dropped since 2002 by 34 percentage points in Lebanon, 12 points in Indonesia and 8 points in Pakistan, according to the latest survey from Pew Global Attitudes Project.

In the poll released last Thursday, about half of Muslims in Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco said that attacks against Americans and their allies are justified.

On a positive note, the poll also showed that confidence in bin Laden has fallen by double-digit margins in Indonesia, Morocco and Lebanon since 2003. In Lebanon, only 2% now express confidence in him. Sadly, this is offset by Jordan and Pakistan, where more than 50% say they that have confidence in him.

Most importantly, in the nine Western nations polled, fears about radical Islam are tied to perceptions of Muslim communities within those countries. Resident Muslims were seen as having a strong and growing sense of Islamic identity, which most of those surveyed see as a bad thing.

In conclusion, while most of those polled in the United States and other Western Nations claim to have favorable views of Muslims, those in predominantly Muslim countries had mixed views of Christians and very negative views of Jews.

48 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Suicide Bombing in Khalis Targets Iraqi Troops

Juan Cole has the latest from Iraq.

Adama Bah - Outrage in New York

via All Spin Zone

...It began with two 16-year-old immigrant girls arrested at dawn, detained far from home, and, in a chilling government assertion, called would-be suicide bombers who posed “an imminent threat to the security of the United States.”

But now, after holding the girls for six weeks in a Pennsylvania detention center, the government has quietly released one of the girls and is allowing the other to leave the country with her family...

My daughter turns 18 on Monday. As a parent, I inherently know how it would have affected her (and me) for life to have something similar happen to her at 16. Six weeks in detention, five minutes each week speaking with her mother on the phone, the rest in the hands of the government that brought you Abu Ghraib.

Yes, this is outrageous beyond words - but it begs the question - how many more 16 year old girls are being currently held on U.S. soil under similar circumstances?

via Olliver Willis

New 9/11 Report Shows Warnings About Hijackings

The report discloses that the Federal Aviation Administration, despite being focused on risks of hijackings overseas, warned airports in the spring of 2001 that if "the intent of the hijacker is not to exchange hostages for prisoners, but to commit suicide in a spectacular explosion, a domestic hijacking would probably be preferable."
The report takes the F.A.A. to task for failing to pursue domestic security measures that could conceivably have altered the events of Sept. 11, 2001, like toughening airport screening procedures for weapons or expanding the use of on-flight air marshals. The report, completed last August, said officials appeared more concerned with reducing airline congestion, lessening delays, and easing airlines' financial woes than deterring a terrorist attack.

The Bush administration has blocked the public release of the full, classified version of the report for more than five months, officials said, much to the frustration of former commission members who say it provides a critical understanding of the failures of the civil aviation system. The administration provided both the classified report and a declassified, 120-page version to the National Archives two weeks ago and, even with heavy redactions in some areas, the declassified version provides the firmest evidence to date about the warnings that aviation officials received concerning the threat of an attack on airliners and the failure to take steps to deter it.

What did Dear Leader say last May?

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people."

LIAR.

Suicide Bomber Kills 12 in Attack on Iraqi Police

By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber plowed into policemen waiting to collect their salaries at a police station west of Ramadi Monday, killing 12 people in the latest insurgent attack on Iraq (news - web sites)'s beleaguered security forces. At least 10 people were wounded in the blast, and 90 percent of the casualties were policemen, said Nazar al-Hiti, a doctor in the town of Hit around 125 miles west of Baghdad, where the dead and wounded were taken.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. patrol went past, killing two American soldiers and wounding three. Thirteen U.S. soldiers and two foreign civilians were also wounded in a mortar attack south of Baghdad. At least 968 U.S. troops have been killed in action in Iraq and 9,000 have been wounded, most of them seriously.

Insurgents trying to drive out U.S.-led soldiers and topple the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have repeatedly attacked Iraqi police and soldiers.

Reefer Madness: The debate about Medical Marijuana is on!

Does marijuana help people like Angel Raich? Is it illegal if a doctor prescribes it? "The justices refused three years ago to protect distributors of medical marijuana from federal anti-drug charges." Or do people just want to get stoned?

There’s also the argument that says we need the FDA to study it more closely. What about the Vioxx scandal and a supposed coverup by the FDA that David Graham brought to the public? I think all you need to do is talk to someone from the seventies and you'll get all the information that you need to know. Why did it take a study from 2001 to tell us that pot gives you the munchies?

I'm surprised the big drug companies aren't pushing to allow them to distrbute yet another drug legally out into society. There are ads on 24/7 that makes it seem like happiness is a just a pill away!

Yet children are commiting suicide from these Antidepressants that are supposed to be a godsend.

Where’s the outrage?

When has anyone jumped off a bridge after smoking a joint? You might want to eat the bridge, but normally, one wants to lie on the couch with a bag of chips and a subway footlong sandwich and watch the tube.

The side effects for oxycodone, percocet, and vicodin often include addiction and painful withdrawals, yet are almost completely ignored as a deterrent in their prescription by doctors.

The other argument that doctors will write prescriptions blatantly like drug dealers is capricious at best. I don’t think a person will be able to walk into a doctor’s office and say, "I have this twinge, can you write a script for chronic?" They can already go to the mall and do that. If marijuana will help people, then what is all this hubbub? Do we still have Reefer Madness on our minds?

Talk Left has a series of great articles about MM.

Here's an in-depth video clip segment from Aaron Brown on the subject:

Video

Help me. I'm overdosing on Christmas shows and Christmas music.

It occurred to my snarky self while watching our annual edition of "It's A Wonderful Life" that not all of the stimuli that my children are eagerly taking in gives them the best ideas about the "reason for the season." I mean, George Bailey's financial situation is making him consider suicide--leaving a widow and young children with the same bills and no real opportunity for income (how many women in those days worked?). Why did I just let my kids watch the wild imaginings of a suicidal man? That's some serious Christmas cheer.

Then I happened upon this site, and they articulated so well exactly what I was thinking:

Movie: The Polar Express (2004)

Bad Lesson: If You’re a Minor and a Stranger Offers You a Ride, You Should Probably Say “Yes”

Movie: The Santa Clause (1994)

Bad Lesson: If You Kill Santa Claus, You Will Become Santa Claus

Movie: A Christmas Carol (1951)

Bad Lesson: People Will Like You Instantly If You Give Them Money

Movie: Home Alone (1990)

Bad Lesson: People in the Chicago Suburbs Never Call the Police for Any Reason Whatsoever

Movie: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

Bad Lesson: Sometimes Chevy Chase Makes Good Movies

Movie: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Bad Lesson: If People Were Mean to You as a Kid, That Excuses ANY Malicious Criminal Behavior You Might Commit When You’re an Adult

Movie: It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Bad Lesson: If You’re in Need of a Moment of Clarity – Why Not Give Suicide a Try?

Movie: Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Bad Lesson: If Enough People Say Something Is True, Eventually, It Becomes True

Movie: A Christmas Story (1983)

Bad Lesson: Toy Safety Warnings are Pointless and Should Be Disregarded Immediately

Can you think of any other bad lessons from the Christmas staples?

From the wonderful artist Zina Saunders (click here for larger):

"Double, double, toil and trouble," chant Michele Bachmann, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh as they stir up the pot against health care reform.

A few incantations from the trio's trick or treat bag: Congresswoman Bachmann says sex clinics will result from Health Care Reform, Ann Coulter says Obama's plan encourages assisted suicide for the elderly, and Rush Limbaugh says Obama's health care plan is right out of Hitler's playbook.

Boo!

Open thread below and John Amato has a World Series thread going as well...