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May 25, 2012
Mark Clayton: Is Hillary's State Dept. hacking Al Qaeda? Not quite
Erika Bolstad: Temple cancels Wasserman Schultz speech
The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman: The former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with contemporary Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Sweet Noodle Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread
May 24, 2012
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May 23, 2012
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May 22, 2012
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May 21, 2012
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Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
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May 18, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
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Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
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The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
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May 11, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
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The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
Jan. 14, 2011 / 9 Shevat, 5771
Now What?
By
Mona Charen
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Some good has come of the tragedy in Tucson. President Obama has issued a de facto rebuke to those in his camp who attempted to use the murders to discredit and smear their political opponents. It was no more than decency for the president to rise above that extremely low threshold -- but rise he did and for that he deserves credit.
But a call to high-mindedness such as the president issued is, in the nature of things, not likely to be effective for very long. If any lasting good is to be achieved out of this horrible episode, it will require addressing the question that Obama mentioned only glancingly, but that really is the heart of the matter -- mental illness.
Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, writing with a rare combination of compassion for the mentally ill and concern for the general public, has analyzed the failure of our system for dealing with mental illness in "The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens." Anyone who is serious about preventing the next Tucson massacre should read this book.
In 1955, when the U.S. population stood at 164 million, 558,000 people were living in mental institutions. Over the course of the next 30 years, nearly all would be released as deinstitutionalization swept the nation. The mental hospitals were closed, leaving former residents to make do on the streets and (increasingly) in the prisons. Today, roughly 4 million Americans suffer from serious mental illnesses and about 1 percent of them, 40,000 individuals, are violent.
Deinstitutionalization began not as a money-saving measure (though it doubtless appealed to some for that reason) but as an idea. Psychiatrists like Thomas Szasz ("The Myth of Mental Illness") and sociologists like Erving Goffman ("Asylums") argued that symptoms of mental illness like raving, hearing voices, and paranoia were actually responses to being institutionalized. Asylums, claimed lawyer Bruce Ennis, were places "where sick people get sicker and sane people go mad." Szasz even denied that mental illness was real, preferring to see inmates as nonconformists.
Such were the '60s. At this moment of reduced partisanship -- if we really are in such a moment -- perhaps Democrats and Republicans can summon the humility to recognize that this disaster was a bipartisan one. Politicians of both parties agreed that subjecting people to psychiatric treatment against their will was immoral and un-American. And so a flood of deeply impaired human beings was loosed on American society. Numerous studies have found that about one-third of homeless men and two-thirds of homeless women have serious mental illnesses. Among the "hardcore homeless" or "permanent street dwellers," close to 100 percent are mentally ill.
On the streets, the homeless have been granted the freedom to be assaulted, to "sleep under bridges," as Anatole France once mocked in another context, to freeze to death, to be robbed and raped, to be lit on fire, and killed. They rummage through trash bins for food and park their filthy shopping carts under highways.
Autonomy and individual liberty are cherished ideals -- achievements of Western civilization. But there can be no true autonomy for those with unsound minds. To insist upon the right of the mentally ill to refuse treatment is cruelty masquerading as respect.
Most mentally ill people are not violent, but among the mentally impaired we do find 40,000 or so deeply disturbed and dangerous psychotics -- out of whose ranks we have gotten the mass killers of the past 50 years -- from Son of Sam to Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech) and sadly, too many more to list.
A study of "rampage killers in the United States reported a 46 percent increase in such tragedies in 1990-97 compared with 1976-89." Most of those who suffer violence at the hands of the dangerously psychotic are not strangers but family members of the ill. Tragically, those family members have often pleaded for help only to be told that nothing could be done until the ill person committed violence -- by which time, of course, it was often too late.
Workable alternatives are available. Torrey recommends a national database that would track the most problematic patients, alerting emergency-room physicians and gun sellers. Programs to force compliance with treatment by withholding SSI payments, for example, or on pain of imprisonment, have been effective. Torrey's book overflows with common sense reforms.
The best that we could do to honor the memories of Christina Taylor Green and the other Tucson victims would be to address our shameful and disastrous mental health policies.
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Mona Charen Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
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