Browsing the NYT website, I stumbled upon War Torn and its accompanying articles including Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles. The NYT describes War torn as A series of articles and multimedia about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home. Reading some of these horrific stories can only leave the impression that we have failed our veterans when they return home. Some of these tragedies may have been prevented with adequate mental health care. I encourage everyone to read the series.

Please, do not let Brandon Friedman's VoteVets diary slide into oblivion; it deserves to be atop the recommended list.

Today, VoteVets.org and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) released a bombshell of an e-mail obtained from a Veterans Affairs (VA) employee. The email directs VA staff to refrain from diagnosing soldiers and veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

This is just one rather extreme example, but the foreclosure crisis, caused by the mortgage meltdown scandal is taking an emotional toll on people.

just before lunch on Oct. 23, the Donacas closed all their home's doors except the one to the garage and left their 1981 Cadillac Eldorado running. Toxic fumes filled the home. When sheriff's deputies arrived at about 1 p.m., they found the body of Raymond, 71, on the second floor along with three dead dogs. The body of Deanna, 69, was in an upstairs bedroom, close to another dead retriever.

"It is believed that the Donacas committed suicide after attempts to save their home following a foreclosure notice left them believing they had few options," the Crook County Sheriff's Office said in a report.

So I'm listening to the car radio and the news was reviewing the $289 billion Farm Bill that just passed the House by a 3 to 1 margin. A spokesperson for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition described the bill as a mixed bag, but better than current law. She described  new incentives for biofuels, land conservation, and organic farming as reasons to see this bill as progress from the status quo. And then she mentioned that the Bill adds $10 billion over ten years for nutrition programs.

And then that unfathomable number of 12 billion a month popped into my head.

I count many interesting people among my friends, and none more so than Jerod Poore, who runs CrazyMeds, a sort of consumer resource/social networking site for people who have mental ill health or neurological conditions. So it's with great interest that I can direct you to what Jerod has to say about the difference between the three candidates on these issues.

Some of the greatest legacies, costs and tragedies of war often go unseen and unexamined.  Every day hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans sleep on the streets.  PTSD and other maladies go untreated and lead to breakdowns of individuals and families.  And now, a report from as psychiatric researcher suggests that you can double the deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan if our pathetic record on mental health care continues.

The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the past few days, we have focused on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In our final installment, we note how Abu Ghraib and Gitmo aren't the only abusive facilities getting tax dollars--both by direct funding and by welfare fraud, Teen Challenge gets quite a bit of your tax money for institutionalised abuse...and Dubya is still to this day bailing them out when they're caught doing something wrong.  

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In the latest installment of this series, we focus on an increasing trend of using Teen Challenge as "alternative sentencing"--and to add insult to injury, the use of "indemnity contracts" by Teen Challenge to prevent lawsuits by survivors who manage to escape.  

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In our latest installment, we now touch on disturbing subjects--sexual abuse (including a known child molester as a Teen Challenge facility manager) both in Teen Challenge and its parent denomination.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we uncover disturbing revelations at the Florida Teen Challenge boy's camps--which include literal "God Warrior" imagery, right down to the camo and drill patrols.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we focus on how Teen Challenge operates in part as a de facto "missionary mill" for the Assemblies of God--and in fact as a particularly insidious recruitment front for the group.  

An AF Lt. Col, Donald Christy died of depression some days back, while we were arguing the merits/demerits of Rev. Wright.  Here is the link.  I feel so sad, not just for Lt Col Christy and his family, but for all of us having our focus on what shouldn't matter when people are suffering so.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/...

Rand Corp released a study recently that 300,000 recent vets are suffering from mental problems, VA has been covering up vet suicides at about 1,000 per month.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we focus on life within Teen Challenge, as revealed by their guides to members--and point out why Teen Challenge cannot be considered a legit rehab facility but rather a "Jesus Gulag".  (It's a little long, but this is by necessity.)

Even after covering the tragic final chapters in the lives of so many U.S. military personnel in Iraq or veterans back home, I found the brutally frank opening line in an obituary from four days ago particularly haunting: "Donald P. Christy, Lt. Col, USAF, passed away April 21, 2008 in Colorado Springs after an extended bout of anxiety and depression."

Further on, the obit mentioned that in 2004 "Don served a tour of duty as the Deputy Commander at Baghdad Airport in Iraq" -- which, as we now know, must have been one of the most stressful jobs in all of Iraq at that time, in light of insurgent attacks and the controversy over the prison on that site and interrogation techniques practiced there.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we focus on a typical week at Teen Challenge--and the extreme amounts of indoctrination, which often take up more than half of the waking hours of the day of participants.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series we began yesterday, we focus on an aspect Teen Challenge shares with its parent denomination--a history of rampant coercive tactics and spiritual abuse.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

We begin with a history of how Teen Challenge was deregulated, and some of the reports of gross mistreatment at the facility--including just about every form of abuse that could have been done to those kids.

As I have written in an earlier diary, I am a manic-depressive.  http://www.dailykos.com/...  I rely upon fairly strong mood stabilizing and anti-psychotic drugs to maintain my mental stability.

This past week, I had a problem with my medications.  It reminded me again of my utter dependency on those medications to maintain sanity.  I was reminded of the pre-medication reality of my life.  I wish that I was "normal", but, unless there is some medical breakthrough to alter my brain chemistry, I will be dependent on medications, despite their side effects, for the rest of my life.