At least that would appear to be the case based on an assassination attempt in Kansas City, Missouri, where in September of 2010 a student planned to kill the Governor, Jay Nixon, but only succeeded in slashing the throat of a dean, Al Dimmit, Jr (who will recover). Mr Casey Brezik, a student at Metropolitan Community College—Penn Vally, also managed to injure his school's chancellor, Mark James. Credit to Mr Brezik, he did wear a bullet proof vest for this mayhem.
From this news report it appears that local school administrators managed to wrestle Mr Brezik to the ground.
Mr Brezik had been previously diagnosed as Paranoid Schizophrenic. Interestingly, this manifested itself, in part, in his adherence to a more Che Guevara like view of the world. The American Thinker has connected him to environmental extremism, radical Islam, anti-capitalism, anti-Zionism and Christophobia.
Health care is a tricky issue. In the recent ancient past we fairly promiscuously locked people up and kept them locked up. We realized the error of our ways and then closed down many mental hospitals, putting people out on the streets, where today many of them are homeless. One of the problems with not keeping people under close surveillance is that they don't take their prescribed medicines. And there is a reason for that, or multiple reasons, one of which is that the medicines make they feel foggy.
As this assassination attempt and the assassination attempt against Congresswoman Gifford show, getting people the help they need when they are having emotional problems is important.
I am guessing that the cost of medical care for congresswoman Gifford and the other survivors has already run over several million dollars. I wonder what proper medicines, for a lifetime, for Jared Loughner would have cost us? Not as much, I am betting. Maybe not one-one hundredth.
And, as for the Title of this blog post, it was not serious. Just as guns are not the real issue, so too knives are not the real issue. Mental Health is the real issue. Neither Mr Brezik nor Mr Loughner were making political statements. They were and are mentally ill.
Regards — Cliff
Speaking as someone who's worked in two psych hospitals I'd like to point out that both were privately owned and got the overwhelming majority of their patients from state agencies. These hospitals are frequently better run than the state facilities (according to some of my older coworkers). Of course a lot of that is simply the evolution of people's understanding. And also the truly challenging and more dangerous people still go to more secure, state-run facilities. But privitization does have its benefits.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile,all fishermen and anglers, hunters and sportsmen, there are tips for avoiding the unintended consequences of the ordinance and believe it or not, certain exemptions written in for anglers.The best advice is that before you carry your fillet knife and get arrested for the absurd, that you have and carry on your person your valid 2011 Massachusetts Fishing or Sportsmen's licenseand to store your fillet knife with your fillet board. Use good needle nose plyers to make your line cuts and trims and you should not run afoul of the Ordinance.
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