Tag Archives: Mental Health

Well, I’m glad that’s over.

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Max Overdrive Has the whole world gone mad? What the hell is going on out there? It’s like the earth has been caught up in a nearby passing comet’s trail and all the machines humans have gone bat-shit crazy. Only difference is there is no cool AC/DC soundtrack and Emilio Esteves isn’t a short order cook at a truck stop gas station.

Cris Kyle, Navy Seal, and the greatest sniper to come out of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars was killed this weekend by another broken veteran on a gun range in Texas. I can’t help but notice how Obama’s liberal media machine is all over anything to do with gun violence. Its a shame really the media can’t report unbiased and news worthy facts. The facts are simple. Every single day, TWENTY-TWO war veterans commit suicide. Let that sink in and read it again. I’ll help you. Every single day, TWENTY-TWO war veterans commit suicide. The same exact veterans that are getting there medical and healthcare benefits reduced more and more by the very President sitting in the oval office right now.

I wish I had spoke to someone after I got back from the first Gulf War. Instead I just kept my mouth shut, didnt talk much about what I saw, and kept on and carried on. After all hearing my father moan and groan in bed with nightmares from Vietnam as a kid was normal. As I look and think back now, aside from pissing them off with snoring, I have probably scared the shit out of every woman I have ever slept in the same bed with since 1993 with occasional nightmares and waking up in cold sweats. Sorry ladies, where ever you may be now.

Last week this wackjob (another fucked up veteran) jumps on a school bus, blasts the driver and takes a kid hostage into an underground bunker for a week. Thankfully today that all ended with the child safe and the veteran dead.

What could go so bad in your head to make one do that? I can’t say I know or understand, but I will say what some see in battle is some horrendous shit. In my case bad, but not bad in as much as my buddies getting hurt next to me. But in the subsequent Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Beirut, Vietnam, that high intensity close in combat seeing your friends get hurt/killed or injured yourself doesn’t leave your mind. It hasn’t for me and comparatively speaking what I did and saw was a cakewalk.

It’s sad, but more infuriating that mental health aid isn’t more available to veterans. When it is the stigma attached to it is like you’re some kind of pussy is a real issue. The ironic thing is and you can mark my words now, in the near future all kinds of mental health assets and federal funds are going to be made available all over this country to make sure someone who wants to buy a hand gun is suitable to own one. There will be so much bureaucratic bullshit involved with mental health and gun ownership all while the veterans who need the help will not get it and continue on in pain and hell between their ears. Only thing is they probably wont get a gun to kill themselves with, so its back to the pills. booze, highway overpasses.

The Super Bowl was weird this year. The game was great in the second half. Beyonce was good. The commercials? Eh. Was I the only one thinking in my head when they pulled out the Newtown or whatever elementary school choir and thought to myself, WTF? Is it now pretty much accepted that every single national tragedy we go through we must rally up the survivors and somehow make a spectacle of them at championship sporting events? First its Captain Sully. Now the kids who didn’t get blown away. Whats next? Little Ethan who was saved from the bunker in Alabama today, gets to wave the green flag at the Indy 500?

I watched the brand new Netflix series House of Cards this weekend. Thirteen episodes of season one. Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright. About a congressman from South Carolina. It was the best thing I have watched since Sopranos, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, and Walking Dead. Do yourself a favor sign up for Netflix for thirty days free and watch this series. If you like politics, you will love this series. Its brand new, on Netflix only and its absolutely awesome. There is a second season coming out with another thirteen episodes probably towards the end of the year. I can not wait. David Fincher produces and directs some episodes. Its well done. Two thumbs up, five stars, highly recommend. Here is the best part. Netflix put out all the episodes of the entire season at one time. I binged the entire season Friday night and Saturday morning.

I’ll close this for now and hope that all the crazy in the world calms down a little.

Let ‘er rip, tater chip!

Oh hello Monday. Its nice to see you this time.

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Hello faithful blog readers. Anything new? I know, I know, this unfortunately is probably a Monday we are all happy to see arrive.

As most of you are fully aware of the horrendous tragedy that took place this past Friday in Connecticut, what is the most ugly of these events is how our media exploits the situation.

We know nothing about the young man that committed these horrible crimes. We know nothing about the young mans family or upbringing. Yet the media is running wild with speculation as to means and motive. The media feeds the knee jerk reaction of every simple minded talking head to pontificate on personal opinion regarding the second amendment, further gun control, mental illness all the way down to what video games and tv the accused may have watched in his life. Of course the simpletons among us see the only solution to the problem is to eliminate all those listed things. Idiots.

Gun control does not fix this problem. Banning assault weapons does not eliminate school, movie theater, or mall shootings. Psychiatric hospitals and mental health doctors do not prevent these horrible things from happening. Purple magical unicorns and school prayers do not prevent these things from happening. Grandstanding moronic legislators promising new bills outlawing every single behavior or device prevent these horrible acts from occurring.

Understand this and repeat it a million times. Personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility comes in all shapes and sizes of life. From a mother with a mentally unstable kid living in her home deciding that while it may be lawful to own and collect an assortment of weapons, that its probably in her and the local populations best interest that she not have a fucking arsenal in her garage/basement. Thats personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility comes in the shape of a mother, father, brother, sister, family member, police, doctor, lawyer, judge, fireman, priest saying to someone, “look your sister, brother, son, daughter, is a fucking lunatic who needs mental health treatment”. It’s nothing to be ashamed of and no different then if you’re sick with the flu, cancer, or a broken leg. Until we let go of the stigma of mental health being a big no no talk and dirty little secret to ignore, then someone in the chain of life is failing at personal responsibility for that sick members condition and possible life experiences.

Personal responsibility comes in the forms of our school administrators and local elected government protecting our children. Before we bitch and moan about the teachers unions and their shitty pay, we need to know do we have any level of security? Is there the simplest form of a security plan about who the hell can walk into or get access into a full school of kindergarten children? How about a security plan or access control for a fucking kid armed to the teeth with assault rifles and pistols dressed in tactical or threatening clothing? Its not hard to spot these mass shooting perpetrators for god sake. Maybe we should lock a door. Maybe we should install a camera. Maybe we should pay at least someone to watch the locked fucking door or camera. Thats personal responsibility, whether its from a school principal, security guard, or Mr. Smith the science teacher.

Until we as a society start taking a look at ourselves for our problems instead of pointing blame at others, we will continue the downward spiral. We are each responsible for our own happiness and survival. No one is going to effectively legislate responsibility, happiness, safety, or morality. Only you the individual can do any of those things. What needs to be understood however is while there are those that refuse to take personal responsibility for their own lives and actions the simpletons whom we the lazy have elected to represent those that refuse to take personal responsibility, will only take away the freedoms from the few of us that try to live in a responsible way.

  • Drugs are bad. Take them away. How has that worked?
  • Alcohol is bad. Take it away. How has that worked?
  • Cigarettes are bad. Take them away. How has that worked?
  • Speeding in a car is bad. Take it away. How has that worked?
  • Guns are bad. Take them away. How has that worked?

Do you see a trend here? Look at the list of bad things that this nation and world has over time tried to legislate away because of the peoples lack of personal responsibility. Look at the consequences people historically have paid over time due to this legislation. When you don’t take responsibility for your actions, it doesn’t affect you. Eventually it only effects those that are responsible. The history books are full of prime examples of how people, citizens, countries, civilizations have failed for nothing more then lack of responsibility that more times then not can easily be traced back to an individual.

We’re all going to fail at something or things in life. It’s nature to fail. Without failure we don’t learn. Its when we fail that we don’t own the failure or blame someone else for the failure that the problem really takes root. Failure is a tough lesson in life to accept and take ownership of in this day and age. Its easy to dismiss or shift the blame of failure to others for the current state of affairs we find ourselves living in. I know I am no different. I have failed, I have shifted blame too. I can say and I guess I am fortunate that I have realized that in life, it hasn’t worked. I believe real freedom is when you accept your failures, learn and move on, trying not to fail in a similar way again. Sometimes the lessons are easy, sometimes hard.

I have soapboxed this subject enough so I’ll close with the following. Don’t allow the mainstream media to dictate to you how to feel. There are no hero’s in this so don’t look for any. Hollywood movie stars and entertainers having nothing of significance to say about this and if they claim they do then you should know immediately they’re full of shit and don’t truly care. There was and still is lots of failure of personal responsibility that led to and allowed this to happen. It wasn’t a singular item. Not a gun, an unlocked door, or a mother in denial of her mentally broken son. A lot of people passed the buck and didn’t accept responsibility that lead up to these events. This will happen again. No amount of new laws will prevent bad things from happening. Be responsible, and be ready for bad things to happen in a way that makes you comfortable. Not what some idiot on TV or the Internet tells you. This blog included.