Although it theoretically is marginally ethical, I frequently find myself performing a rudimentary psychoanalysis of people I have never met.
I usually find it helps to explain a life or an origin of suffering, or some kind of human empathy, and can bring peace or closure to the folks who come into my office — or the folks who are my friends.
It was a really good friend who told me on the phone today, “I thought of you this past week. My Uncle Ed died.” Read more on Uncle Ed — The War Hero…
Filed under Diagnosis, Disease, Doctors, Education, Mental Illness, military, News, war by on Aug 30th, 2018. Comment. 
I have been in screaming and crying mode since this morning. When I got started, I wanted to look up more info about veterans to help out my beloved veterans who have told me that they are having hard times getting enough benefits to survive. I’m sure you read or have heard of by now about the story from the LA Times. Trying to figure out what happened is tough. But it seems that about a decade ago, someone offered the California National Guard monetary rewards of ten thousand dollars and up for re-enlisting, which they took. I don’t think anyone can blame them for that. Read more on Can being a veteran (or soldier) get any worse?…
Filed under Family, Government, military, News, politics, Society, war by on Oct 25th, 2016. Comment.
The more I look the more I find. In reliable sources. More ways that my beloved veterans are getting screwed over that nobody knows about. I know what I am doing and I collect facts–of science and of history — and I find myself too often in crying mode. Not that the controversies are necessarily new ones. Sigmund Freud said a long time ago that a lot of psychiatry seemed to be the neurology you did not yet know. I have been treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for a long time. I was incredulous, shocked to my limits, when I first tried to take care of these wonderful, brave, and once fearless men, who would have crying meltdowns and end up in my arms. The best thing I did was to learn Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and to decide I was professional enough to do it “my way,” not according to verbatim directions, but adapting it to folks’ needs. Using EFT has put me on the spot plenty of times; with the VA, even prisons, where I have been told more than once that it robs people of “free will,” which is of course, complete and total rubbish. Patients are awake, alert, and voluntarily tap on their own acupuncture meridians. I have heard at least one hypnotherapist tell me it is “kind of like a light trance,” but patients could not, in my estimation, be more awake and alert. Read more on Another way veterans are getting screwed — crying time again….
I am glad that Frida Ghitlis covered this, glad as always that other women in other countries fight against arbitrary and repressive regimes.
Of course a woman should be allowed to show her face, that great bastion of personal identity.
I cannot claim to be surprised that Fox News, that lovely stronghold of all that is conservative, trivialized it into a headline about it being impossible to tell women “what to wear.” Read more on What “Womanstuff” Really Means…
Filed under News, politics, war by on Nov 15th, 2013. Comment.
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” “It is sweet and right to die for your country.” The line, in Latin, is from Horace’s Odes, 3.2.13. It is a memory from Miss Lovering’s 8th grade Latin class at the Beaver Country Day School. Everyone said Miss Lovering was a truly great Latin teacher, mostly because she was old enough that she was surely there in Rome when it happened. She was one of the older living Radcliffe College alumnae and had, it was said, found marriage a pale alternative to the glories that were Rome. I remember the above quote as the moment I started thinking Romans were simply not very nice guys. The “lie,” apparently often quoted to soldiers at the beginning of World War I — ostensibly to give them courage — was nicely incorporated into a poem by Wilfred Owen that expresses what yucky stuff war really is. People die of a lot of horrible things, and anyone who has seen combat veterans or lost family has probably figured out that death is just as ugly, if not more so, when it is for your country.
In the poem, he cites, “vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues.” Our friends at the Center for Disease Control show — avoid this page if you are faint of heart — a syphilis sore on a tongue, which is what this sounds like. An attempt to get sexy prior to combat is my guess. Soldiers have tried to use the “I could be in combat and die tomorrow” line on me; it never worked, obviously. Opening combat to women might be good in some ways. Good for military rank climbing or professional climbing. If a woman feels compelled to do this, I guess she should be allowed to. Read more on Women in Combat…
Filed under military, News, Religion, Sexual Misconduct, war by on Feb 4th, 2013. Comment.
I happened to be watching CNN when Mr. Buckley, the father of an unarmed Marine killed in Afghanistan, was sharing his story. He was fighting tears and so was the CNN reporter. I was not doing too great myself.
I started the American Natural Health Initiative because I think American social behavior simply does not value human life. It’s not hard to find instances that support this — ridiculous profits for big corporations, the sorry state of our healthcare system, industrial toxins that persist despite knowledge of their danger, or genetic engineering that puts profit above human health. I am and will continue to be against all of these nefarious anti-human forces. These concerns are dwarfed, however, by the urgency to fight my own country about what the military is doing. As I say this, please remember that I am an honorably discharged veteran.
First, I openly send condolences to the family of Lieutenant Buckley of Long Island. I applaud his father’s courage, for it was obviously difficult for him to come forward. I must thank him for doing so and assure him that his son’s death — which his son saw coming — was not in vain. Lieutenant Buckley was gunned down in the heinous manner of an execution. An Afghan soldier, armed with an AK47, shot him on a basketball court where there were witnesses. The Afghan soldier had informed Lieutenant Buckley — as he apparently had in the past — that he did not belong where he was. For all intensive purposes, the perpetrator has “disappeared.” The stated purpose of the Marines – the unarmed ones in Afghanistan — is to help train our “ally” in police and military operations. As far as I can figure, the unarmed Marines are supposed to be doing things like playing basketball with our Afghan friends — who are armed. They even share a barracks. Read more on Marine Killed — But Was It A Casualty Of War?…
Filed under Government, Healthcare reform, News, war by on Sep 22nd, 2012. Comment.
What this man did was wrong.
We all know that killing civilians during war is wrong.
Does it happen? Absolutely, all the time. Unfortunately, punishing one officer will not stop it. It will continue as long as we train and send soldiers into war.
If you or I were sent to a place where terrorist and guerrilla type warriors wanted to kill us, we would be scared. Moreover, we would be deemed “crazy” if we were not scared. Read more on Thrill Killers In The Military…
Filed under Government, military, News, Violence, war by on May 17th, 2012. Comment.