Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.
Another view?
View more of the Las Vegas Sun's opinion section:
• Editorials - the Sun's viewpoint.
• Columnists - local and syndicated writers.
• Letters to the editor - readers' views.
Have your own opinion? Write a letter to the editor.
A legislator allegedly threatens to kill another politician and gets compensated for the threat by getting a paid vacation at taxpayer expense. Now he’s on the loose again. To do what? Go after somebody else?
The brilliant politicians in Carson City and Washington wonder why we have so many nutcases running loose and shooting people. Let me help: It’s the revolving doors in our prison system. You don’t let screw-loose people out on the streets when they threaten to kill someone. It’s time we replaced the Nevada Senate and Assembly and the do-nothing U.S. Congress with a “direct democracy” where the people make all the laws and decisions by voting on the issues.
Finally, could you please direct me to the nearest state office where I can apply for a “free” administrative leave paid for with my own taxes even though I haven’t threatened to kill someone?
Answer to the letter writer's question requesting the office to apply for "free" administrative leave: US Department of State under Secretary Hillary Clinton and President Obama.
CarmineD
Steven Brooks,.....Think Eddie Ray Routh, Christopher Jordan Dorner, Jimmy Lee Dykes, Seung-Hui Cho, Jared Loughner, James Holmes, Adam Lanza, Monserrate Shirley, Mark Leonard, Bob Leonard, One Goh. All were KNOWN mentally ill.
John Kennedy as part of his New Frontier program established the Community Mental-Health Centers to replace state mental-health hospitals. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA). It led to considerable deinstitutionalization.
Over the years Social Security disability Medicare and Medicare have subsumed the funding of these facilities at about $140 billion per year.
---
Yet Our mental illness health care delivery and reporting system is broken. HIPAA-1996, Privacy Rules, passed under Clinton, must be modified to allow sharing appropriate information with immediate family and law enforcement databases.
Mr. Brooks needs to be held responsible for his recent run-ins with law enforcement. It seems that his irrational behavior is escalating in a bad way. I expect to read or hear of him taking his behavior to the ultimate, and killing someone.
Prison is not the environment to effectively treat truly mentally ill inmates. However, I don't have the answer for getting these people the professional treatment they need. The mental health care system is in a shambles.
Maybe we all need to have our heads examined!
It's endemic with Dumbocrats! Jesse jackson Jr. is now being charged with a felony for stealing campaign contributions so he could live the high life. Apparently he wasn't listening when his father schooled him on how to steal legally by using race as a tool of blackmail & intimindation.
Unhinged characters in positions of power, both elected officials or private citizens, has a long, rich history in America.
One that has been in the news a lot lately is Wayne LaPierre, the current poster child for raving lunatics who're taken seriously despite the fact that no one would trust them to take out their garbage.
Another example is Larry Craig, former senator from Idaho, a supposedly happily married, heterosexual family values guy who had an urge to hang out in public restrooms hoping to pick up gay sex partners.
The GOP has had more than it's share of crazies over the years. Joe McCarthy even has his name attached to a particularly ugly period of Washington politics.
Mentally ill- "screwlooses", "nutcases"; physically ill- "gimps" "whiners"; Irish- "mickeys", "drunks"; Italians- "wops", "guineas"; various Eastern Europeans- "bohunks"; Puerto Ricans- "spics"......get it yet? Mentally ill folk do not deserve to be called names any more than you do.
The conditioning, the beginnings of the "revolving door" reaction and/or remedies to inappropriate behaviors begins in elementary school, and is perpetuated throughout school years for the subject individual. There is no law against being crazy or stupid, by the way, so the road to hell is paved with good intentions (of those involved with the mentally ill). Getting help for the mentally ill is evasive and extremely difficult to do.
As Commenter Future pointed out,"The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA). It led to considerable deinstitutionalization.
Over the years Social Security disability Medicare and Medicare have subsumed the funding of these facilities at about $140 billion per year.
---
Yet Our mental illness health care delivery and reporting system is broken. HIPAA-1996, Privacy Rules, passed under Clinton, must be modified to allow sharing appropriate information with immediate family and law enforcement databases."
Getting help for out of control individuals is next to impossible, unless that person "is a danger to themself or others."
It is well past time to address the mental health epidemic that plagues our families, communities, state, and country. With so many service men and women returning to the USA with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/Syndrome, we can no longer turn a blind eye to the need nor problems our mental health system has. Time to deal with it and quit living in denial that it is a problem.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
There is no money to treat the mentally ill. The $250 billion a month we spend in the United States for healthcare goes to treat physical illness. There is very little money left over for anything else.
The legislator will bounce around until he kills or seriously injure someone then we will throw him in jail. That's life in America.
Ms Kogan is absolutely correct. In California this falls under the 5150 Health and Safety code. In my career I took many people to county hospitals that had either threatened themselves or others. Hospitals can hold these people for 72 hours but in most instances these people are back on the street within a day. They give them a bunch of pills and throw them out the door.
"Jesse jackson Jr. is now being charged with a felony for stealing campaign contributions so he could live the high life. " @ Jerry Fink
And not getting nearly as much press as his supposed mental illness that kept him out of sight and campaigning from June 2012 until November 6, 2012, when he was elected by a landslide.
Jesse Jackson Jr., who with his wife embezzled close to $800,000 in campaign funds, will likely serve 3 years in a cushy jail. His wife will probably get probation.
And let's not forget Senator Frank Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey. He's the target of a Federal investigation which includes allegations of having sex with under age girls in the Dominican Republic. Although it's easy to forget, since the media doesn't cover it.
Just think if one and/or both were republicans.
CarmineD
@Carmine....and your point is....what? That there are corrupt politicians? Oh no, the horror! That there are corrupt hypocritical politicians? How can these people be role models to our precious unsullied youth. In the interest of MSM fairness you left out a few....Larry "wide stance" Craig, trolling for men's room hookups in airports; Michelle Bachmann, DeJarlais, Rick Scott, ad ifinitum. Anyway, this thread is about mental illness not political corruption.
"@Carmine....and your point is....what? That there are corrupt politicians? Oh no, the horror!" @ Pat Hayes
Pat: I thought I made it very clear. Republican politicans who do wrong, get plenty of mainstream news coverage. Even those that don't. Democrats who do wrong, don't. It's a double standard. Look at the bruhaha over Rubio's drink of water. The media can't dispute his message and its appeal to the people, so they attack him personally on frivolity.
CarmineD
"Anyway, this thread is about mental illness not political corruption." @ Pat Hayes
It is probably a foregone conclusion at least to me that Jesse Jackson Jr. feigned mental illness in the media [using his daddy as an accomplice in the ploy] to veil the real reason for his political AWOL: The embezzlement investigation/charges that were directed against him and his wife. It's truly rare in politics, albeit perhaps not in Chicago, when a husband wife team are charged. If they were republicans, and fortunately they are not,[or dare I say not African-American], the mainstream media would be having a field day. But they are neither, so it gets a media pass big time.
He'll probably return in 3 years from jail and re-win the same seat in a landslide.
CarmineD
BTW Pat, do you think having a fetish for sex with underage girls on multiple occasions, if the allegations against Democratic Senator Frank Menendez are true, is a mental illness, physical illness and/or both?
As with the case against the Clinton, in politics all the good they do doesn't make up for the bad.
CarmineD
carmineD, you must realize that folks like wharfrat simply think they have the right to dictate what we can or cannot say and the terms we use. They have no clue as to what rights we have and would abrogate them at the drop of a hat if given the opportunity. That's why we must continue to use terms such as nutcase, screwball, parasite, etc. We cannot afford to ignore those such as wharfrat. They are dangerous to our liberties.
@Jerry....words have consequences. Would you say to someone's face what you would say in print? When you go over the top in using inflammatory language or pejorative terms many people stop listening and any valid point that you make is ignored. It all comes down to good manners.
@Carmine....I understand that the Democratic 'target de jour" is Menendez but if you review the allegations you find that while there are clearly ethics violations in his acceptance of campaign contributions, plane rides, etc., there is absolutely no evidence of prostitutes of any age save for an anonymous email circulated heavily through and repeated by Republican groups and blogs. It is yet another case of the right wing manufacturing cloth out of threads. It's quite easy to make unsubstantiated claims over the Internet, manufacture a series of comments and create the appearance of factuality simply by repetition. You, Re, Jerry, SgtRock, Roslenda do it all the time.
I'm not sure what point Carmine is trying to make either - all I know is MY point of view is that people just LOVE to point fingers either to the left or to the right... my point of view is that WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?? I don't care WHICH Party is elected because BOTH Parties are loaded with liars, crooks and thieves and I don't care what anyone else says about voting someone in or voting someone out because again, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE??? Out with the old.. in with the new... and NOTHING ever gets better.
"there is absolutely no evidence of prostitutes of any age save for an anonymous email circulated heavily through and repeated by Republican groups and blogs" @ Pat Hayes
There you go again believing the mainstream media which has been conspicuously AWOL on the Menendez matters. Your latest and greatest info is old and out of date. One of the young female victims has come forward in person. BTW, Senate Leader Reid who was Democratic Senator Menendez's staunchest supporters in the underage sex allegations has walked back his unbridled support. Saying instead to wait for the results of the investigation. First rule for scumbag sleezy politicians: Where there's smoke, there's usually fire.
CarmineD
"I'm not sure what point Carmine is trying to make either.." azsk8fan
Simple. Liberal mainstream media is biased against Republicans and for Democrats. Period. End of story.
CarmineD
@Carmine....I admit it....I will usually believe a mainstream media source over known partisan flacks with axes to grind. I subscribe to and read about a half-dozen online publications plus browse several blogs of various partisan persuasion. I research and form my own opinions. It's called critical thinking.You should try it sometime.
@Carmine...and while you're up and about please cite reputable source or sources for the statement that a "young female victim" has come forward. As of Friday PM news feeds the FBI, which is in-country investigating the allegations has said that no corroborating evidence or testimony has been found.
"@Carmine...and while you're up and about please cite reputable source or sources for the statement that a "young female victim" has come forward. @ Pat Hayes
Come on Pat. What do you really expect the FBI to say in the middle of an ongoing investigation? Then, ask yourself what made the FBI go down to the Dominican Republic in the first place. AND remember the victim IS UNDERAGE.
Now, to make my point about the liberal mainstream media yet again: Peruse the AP article on page 4A of today's RJ. 4 Columns above the fold on former female mayor of San Diego Maureen O'Connor whi is charged in a federal court of stealing $2.1 MILLION from her husband's charitable foundation to feed a grambling addiction. No mention of her party affiliation until the reader gets to the next to last paragraph. Buried in the words is .. "she was the only democratic leader a 4 decade span."
If she were a Republican the AP article would have said it in every other sentence of the article.
CarmineD
Uhhh escooze me , look I need some time off to get really wierd cuz I beez loozing it. I be back tho jus soon as I gits me anudda gun. otay? I would bet that this guy never serves in a public office again.
"It's called critical thinking.You should try it sometime." Pat Hayes
Perhaps you should follow your own advice before you tell others to.
CarmineD
While you are working on that critical thinking matter, tell us what a US Senator was doing in the Dominican Republic on all those [until now] SECRET jaunts? Representing his constituents in NJ?
CarmineD
Art, there has been zero testimony. Mr. Brooks has an attorney who on a local television show "said" any "threat" was NOT made directly to Ms. M K. Supposedly Mr. Brooks said something to a couple of other Assemblymen and was "merely" embellishing his dissatisfaction and that he didn't want Ms. K. to retain any leadership position. THEN we have the message by tin can, retransmitted by tin can, until the Sheriff's staff heard something much different that what was allegedly said. So why was he even arrested? The arrest resulted in the publicity with ongoing speculation. Might be ONLY THAT Mr. Brooks misspoke or used a poor choice in words.
Hayes 8:57: Twould appear anyone who doesn't see the "wisdom" of your words is misguided. Or do you just like to call names?
"Carmine....It's quite easy to make unsubstantiated claims over the Internet, manufacture a series of comments and create the appearance of factuality simply by repetition. You, Re, Jerry, SgtRock, Roslenda do it all the time." @ Pat Hayes
Thank you for including me in such prestigious company. I'm flattered.
The best thing Senator Bob Menendez can do for the democrats right now is join the republican party. And I suspect most democrats right now wish he did.
CarmineD