[h/t Media Matters]

I'm not sure what part of the Goldwater rule faux shrink and Fox News commentator Keith Ablow doesn't understand, but if he can't even get this right, why should anyone trust his analysis?

The Goldwater rule is part of the ethical standards imposed on mental health professionals which constrain them from offering a diagnosis of people who they have not interviewed personally. Ablow can argue that he's dancing around this by speaking in general terms, but it's pretty obvious to me that his terms are anything but general.

First, he pronounces President Obama's push for gun control in the wake of the Newtown tragedy as a "hijack" of the issue in order to advance his "personal desire for gun control."

Ablow then goes on to say that the real problem is "untreated mental illness." While this may be part of the problem, it is not the only problem. Not at all. In fact, there is an assumption that Adam Lanza was mentally ill, but no evidence of that has been put forth, partly because of HIPAA limitations, but also possibly because he was not mentally ill at all. It's irresponsible to place all of the blame on the shoulders of the mentally ill, untreated or otherwise.

Aside from that, let's remember who dismantled mental health services in this country. It wasn't Obama, it was Reagan, and he did a great job of seeing to it they were not part of our shared collective responsibility. President Obama, on the other hand, made sure the Affordable Care Act included mental health treatment as part of the basic requirements all insurance policies must offer. But God forbid Ablow would acknowledge that when it's just simpler to lay it at the feet of the mentally ill.

You'd think a true conservative might be a little concerned about the idea of a national database of people with mental illness. What illnesses will be included? ADHD? Depression? Insomnia? If someone gets treated for PTSD, will they be included? Half the nation would qualify for that.

Keith Ablow, like his pal Glenn Beck, cannot resist drawing a large, grand conspiratorial picture around every single thing this president says or does. After Lou Dobbs sets up the question with the statement that President Obama is defined by having only one solution to every problem (government), Ablow happily complies, saying, "His solution runs psychologically in the direction of disempowering the individual every single time." When questioned by Dobbs about why that would be, Ablow drops the diagnosis, Goldwater rule or no Goldwater rule.

Claiming "the autonomy of others did him no favors as a kid when he was abandoned again and again," Ablow goes on to say that this abandonment led Obama to believe "the collective needs to be empowered and all the better if [Obama is] the center of the collective and the most powerful person."

In other words, all this talk of gun control has nothing to do with the rights of children and innocent individuals to live their lives without having them cut short by some lunatic with an assault rifle. No, really, it's just about how Barack Obama's mother left him with her parents in Hawaii while she earned a living and a PhD.

Perhaps Fox Business should stick to business and leave personal motive analysis to professionals.

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Friday night Ann Romney did an interview in Reno, NV with CBS News where she said this:

Asked what her primary worry would be should her husband succeed in defeating President Obama on Nov. 6, Mrs. Romney replied, "You know, I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being."

"I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what's missing right now in the economy - you know, pieces that are missing to get this jumpstarted," she continued. "So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it."

So Ann, you have confidence in the mechanics, but are uncertain whether the fundamentals are sound? Is that how I'm supposed to interpret this? Because if so, we've got a problem and you should sit down and breathe for a second.

While it's true that your husband, if elected, would be unlikely to suffer the barrage of underhanded slams at his race, or at his place of birth, life will not be a cakewalk for you, because governing this country isn't all about the economy, nor will you two reign as king and queen.

It's about 3 AM phone calls, and a Congress that can't seem to get anything done. It's about a Tea Party group funded by billionaires who will constantly put Mitt under pressure to produce his digits for appropriate bill-signings, show up at state dinners, and do little else.

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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.

What is the state of the union when a madman can come within a whisker of assassinating a member of Congress? When his rantings and ravings and drug use don't stop him from getting a high-capacity magazine? When a sophomore in high school can show up to school with a gun in his backpack, and accidentally shoot two of his classmates?

I'm not sure, but I know I'd really like to hear President Obama address this during his SOTU address--without platitudes, but with an actual plan of action. One which might include demanding that the Senate confirm his nominee to run the ATF forthwith, fixing gaps in government databases of mental health and criminal records, requiring states to share data on those who have been deemed mentally unfit, questioning the intelligence of selling high-capacity magazines to just anyone, allowing concealed carry without a permit, as Arizona and two other states do, wondering whether those with firearms should just be able to meander up next to their member of Congress, and closing loopholes that allow the crazed and criminal to get guns at gun shows while firmly ensconced on terrorist watch lists.

Because anything less than this would tell me that he is to the right of such known Progressives as Dick Cheney, Sen. Tom Coburn, Sen. Dick Lugar and Rep. Peter King. Not to mention A-rated NRA supporter Harry Reid and former RNC Communications Director Cliff May.

Oh yeah, it would also mean he is FAR to the Right of that key element in our democracy known as the American People:

"Large majorities of Americans agree with the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to own guns, and Americans strongly oppose efforts to ban handguns," said Bob Carpenter, vice president of American Viewpoint, the Republican polling firm that joined with Democratic firm Momentum Analysis to conduct the survey. "But Americans and gun owners feel with equal fervor that government must act to get every single record in the background-check system that belongs there and to ensure that every gun sale includes a background check. Most Americans view these goals, protecting gun rights for the law-abiding and keeping guns from criminals, as compatible."

Some findings from the poll results, provided exclusively to The Huffington Post:

-- 90 percent of Americans and 90 percent of gun owners support fixing gaps in government databases that are meant to prevent the mentally ill, drug abusers and others from buying guns.

-- 91 percent of Americans and 93 percent of gun owners support requiring federal agencies to share information about suspected dangerous persons or terrorists to prevent them from buying guns.

-- 89 percent of Americans and 89 percent of gun owners support full funding of the law a unanimous Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed after the Virginia Tech shootings to put more records in the background-check database.

-- 86 percent of Americans and 81 percent of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun and no matter who they buy it from.

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Closing the so-called "terror gap" has particularly strong support. A 2010 Government Accountability Office report found that during the past six years, individuals on the terror watchlist were able to buy firearms or explosives from licensed U.S. dealers 1,119 times.

The NRA has opposed bipartisan legislation closing the gap on the grounds that the list is flawed -- some individuals are put on the list by mistake, while many who pose legitimate threats are never added.

But this position puts the NRA far to the right of even its members. A survey last year by conservative pollster Frank Luntz found that 82 percent of NRA members supported "prohibiting people on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns." Eighty-six percent agreed with the statement that the country can "do more to stop criminals from getting guns while also protecting the rights of citizens to freely own them."

This folks, is about whether we want democracy by ballot or intimidation by bullet. It goes to the very heart of who we are and want to be, and it is most certainly an issue of National Security--or security for our democracy. Lets hope President Obama does the right thing.

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I had heard that Glenn Beck had been quite muted after the president's speech last week. But today the dam broke. He just couldn't hold it back any longer, and let fly with a segment worthy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Jack Nicholson couldn't do it any better.

He aims at CNN's John King, who discusses a conversation he had about the Chicago mayoral race, where a colleague used the term "in the crosshairs". King says they're trying to get away from that language, but sometimes falter, and for viewers to "hold us accountable when we don't meet your standards."

This is all it takes to push Beck over the edge. For the next 5 minutes, 49 seconds, he completely loses whatever tenuous hold on sanity he may appear to have. Citing old Bugs Bunny cartoons, he goes on and on about how we've raised an entire generation who understand the difference between make-believe and reality.

Well, no. What Beck intentionally misses here is the obvious, which is that most people are attuned to what is rhetoric and what is real, and are smart enough to separate them. It's that group who live on the unraveling edges because of their own mental health state who may not be able to. But of course, that would sort of intrude on Beck's own stroll down the river of illogic and venom.

I do have one observation of my own on his casual dismissal of violent rhetoric. There is a desensitizing effect on sane people. Crosshairs the first time can become a shrug the sixth or seventh time. That doesn't mean it's not deleterious. It just means people become that much less sensitive to expressions of harm and violence toward others. I don't view that as a good thing, even if they don't act upon the idea.

I don't take Glenn Beck seriously. I know most people here don't, either. I also don't believe we have to sugar-coat everything we say, but surely there's a place for reasonable, respectful verbal exchanges that don't involve wishing some form of death upon those with opposite viewpoints?

(h/t C&L community member PissedOffPatricia)