Is a guy who went to Yale Law School, who runs a hedge fund for Peter Thiel, and whose wife clerked for Chief Justice Roberts, actually a folksy populist who gives a shit about the culture war issue du jour and suddenly thinks Trumpism is great?
Let me save you some time, WaPo. pic.twitter.com/sI4TYmLhyw
— Liz Dye (@5DollarFeminist) January 4, 2022
A fisking thread, if you — quite sensibly! — don’t want to give the WaPo’s latest beat-sweetener a click.
vance's true colors are, uh, extremely pale, shall we say https://t.co/N6Ao6LBP9k
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) January 6, 2022
Of course Vance is just a(nother) tool in the hands of his sugar daddy, who has big (German immigrant via South Africa) ambitions…
News – Peter Thiel is slated to host a pair of fundraisers at his Miami home next month for Liz Cheney primary challenger Harriet Hageman, per invites to be sent out today https://t.co/Hoc9oeKYUS
— Alex Isenstadt (@politicoalex) December 30, 2021
Former far-right Austrian chancellor Kurz, who left office amid corruption allegations, set to join Peter Thiel investment firm https://t.co/ElQxzujPFA
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) December 31, 2021
Poe Larity
When there are no comments
seems kind of demanding
Joe Falco
Peter has enough money to pay a lot of useful idiots that if all of them lose, it’s not going to make a dent to his wealth. If any one of them win, it’s worth the cost.
Poe Larity
Why do the John Cole’s of the Left reward Sullivan’s worst upon a great journalist by perpetuating that term?
Felanius Kootea
@Joe Falco: And he’s conveniently acquired New Zealand citizenship for when he’s done blowing up the US to fuel his greed.
I didn’t realize that both he and Elon Musk were partly raised in Southern Africa. Interesting.
James E Powell
@Poe Larity:
If I knew what it meant, I forgot. What is it?
mrmoshpotato
GOP Death Cult, eh?
Leto
I saw that article on the front page/top half of The WaPo and about damn lost my eyes from them attempting to roll out of their sockets. An extreme negative interest in reading any piece about Peter Thiel’s sock puppet.
Leto
@mrmoshpotato: yet again demonstrating that 1) women don’t matter in our country (hello, mammograms?) and 2) he hasn’t had his prostate checked. Rooting for butt cancer.
dmsilev
@mrmoshpotato: Cancer screenings are another. Clearly someone needs to give DeSantis a colonoscopy.
frosty
@Leto: FYI, I had a museum recommendation for you in the last post.
Suzanne
I am kind of freaking out. We just had a naked man who was high as a fucking kite smash through our window and break into our house. He bled all over my house and the police and ambulance just left.
Yutsano
@Leto: Hell his own wife doesn’t even matter. Her cancer was discovered somehow. Did the doctor just wave a magic wand and find it? Of course De Santis having contempt for his spouse and her condition is completely unsurprising.
Yutsano
@Suzanne: OH MY GRAVY!!! Are any of you hurt???
Starboard Tack
@Suzanne: Slightly freaking out sounds perfectly normal.
Suzanne
@Yutsano: No, just terrified. My house is literally a crime scene.
lgerard
@mrmoshpotato:
That has to rank up there with the stupidest things he has ever said. What does he think a Glucose tolerance test is? Why does he think the first thing that happens at any medical appointment is a blood pressure measurement? Why does he think those Phlebotomists always want vials of your blood?
Jay
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/01/djokovic-situation-gets-uglier
JWR
@James E Powell: What is it?
Isn’t that a reference to Robert Fisk tearing some asshat’s argument to shreds? I dunno. Wish there were a way to find out.
;)
Jay
@Suzanne:
glad you are all okay, if freaked out.
dmsilev
@Suzanne: Yikes. I assume you’re all ok except for the (very understandable) freaking out?
Starboard Tack
@Suzanne: Sounds like a real piss off.
Old School
@Suzanne: Wow! That would freak me out too.
Planetjanet
@Suzanne: Oh, what holy hell! Breathe deep. What the holy F. Thankful you are well enough to type.
Jay
@JWR:
opposite.
Jackie
@Suzanne: Are you and family ok? OMG!
Genine
@Suzanne: Understandable! I’m sorry about your house, but I’m glad you all are safe.
Suzanne
My back door is broken and now there is no way to secure my house.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: Glad you’re safe. I’d be shaken up by that too.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: Is there a 24-hour board up service you can call?
HumboldtBlue
@Suzanne:
Comments you did not expect to read on a Saturday night for $300, Alex.
Here’s hoping your night gets better.
VeniceRiley
I hold no hope for us; but New Zealand has let the Fox in the henhouse.
Mary G
@Suzanne: OMG. “Kind of freaking out” is way below the hysterical screaming I would’ve started. I hope the Spawns were able to sleep through it, and SuzMom too. Yikes.
Steeplejack
@Leto:
Awkward. “Governor, your wife is on line 2.”
The Dangerman
Mildly impaired, so YMMV.
Insurance company would be high on my list of calls. You are going to need professional help to clean up and they will be paying followed by them going after Mr. High for reimbursement.
Steeplejack
@Suzanne:
Holy shit! I don’t even know what to say. I hope your kids—and you—weren’t traumatized.
Suzanne
@The Dangerman: Yes, I am going to call the insurance company in the morning. I am not cleaning this up myself.
Steeplejack
@lgerard:
DeSantis didn’t say exactly that. You’re getting filtered Twitter snark. What he did say was unbelievably stupid, no argument about that.
Suzanne
@Mary G: Spawn the Youngest was awake, as was SuzMom. Mr. Suzanne grabbed Spawn and my mom took the kids and barricaded them upstairs while Mr. Suzanne and I called the cops and chased the dude out of the house.
FelonyGovt
@Suzanne: How awful and terrifying. Glad no one is hurt, but your poor house!
different-church-lady
My god does our media love hucksters.
Steeplejack
@JWR:
Fisking: “The act of making an argument seem wrong or stupid by showing the mistakes in each of its points, or an instance of doing this.”
It was Robert Fisk who got ripped, by Andrew Sullivan, I believe.
Suzanne
@The Dangerman: Dude was having a psychotic episode. He was screaming for help before he broke in, was bare-ass naked (and it’s 33 degrees and there’s snow everywhere), and once the cops subdued him, he was saying that someone was shocking him with extension cords.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Suzanne:
Holy CRAP! I bet that wasn’t on the 2022 bingo card. I hope everyone is OK! Wow…
Anthony
“Fund a riot”? Methinks J.D. Vance has never met a real person!?!
Jay
@Suzanne:
glass or door frame?
if it’s the door frame, half a dozen 3” screws through the door frame into the frame will secure the door.
If it’s the glass, assorted scraps of wood over heavy plastic, with no room to get a body through, or a sheet of OSB or Plywood from the outside will secure the door.
Suzanne
@Jay: It’s both. He smashed out the glass pane in the door and climbed through the opening, thereby putting his weight on the door and breaking it. Also cutting himself up, hence the blood all over my house.
The Dangerman
Hmmm. Messed up last post. Aren’t all insurances 7×24?
Suzanne
@The Dangerman: Probably, but I don’t have the emotional bandwidth right now for a long call.
Mary G
@Suzanne: More and more awful with details. I blame Reagan.
Suzanne
@Mary G: Dude was not old.
Irony: Dude was white (naked and tattooed). All but one of the officers is black. They were very prompt and respectful of the dude.
Suzanne
I will note that they handcuffed the guy, we gave them a blanket to cover his naked ass, but it took a while for the ambulance to show up and in the meantime he bled all over my front porch. The outdoor furniture, the rug, the kids’ toys, the stroller and tricycle, all bloody.
CaseyL
@Suzanne: WTAF?? I am so glad you and your family are all right.
Did he break through a window to open a door, or come crashing bodily through? If it was one pane of a multi-pane window, you might have something in the house big and sturdy enough to cover it up with. Besides the lack of security, all the house heat is escaping through the opening.
You might be able to rig up a line (string, wire, extension cord) with cans or silverware hanging off across the broken window, so if anyone else decides to break in they’ll make a lot of noise. You might also want to bed down nearby – assuming you’ll sleep at all, which is doubtful – to keep watch.
Holy shit.
ETA: Posted this before I saw the detail that your entire door is off the hinges. Jay has a good idea to just nail/screw the door back into place (hopefully you have another door for getting in and out).
Suzanne
Dude or the officers probably brought Covid into my house. FUCK.
The Dangerman
@Suzanne: Understandable.
Suzanne
@CaseyL: The door has (had) a glass pane at the top half. He smashed the glass from the outside, then climbed through the opening, breaking the door and cutting himself up. Then he ran into the house and Mr. Suzanne chased him out the front door. The officers arrested him on our front porch. So there is blood and broken glass and a mess from back to front.
Oddly broke my Instant Pot while crashing into my kitchen.
CaseyL
@Suzanne: Fuckitty fuck. You’ll have to dispose of everything he bled on. Might need to check and see if you’re required to use hazmat services for that – which you might want to do anyway. Use a crime scene cleaning service.
If your insurance doesn’t cover it all, fuck them with a rusty farm implement. Have the bloodied wrecked items delivered to their lobby.
Jay
@Suzanne:
Folex , https://www.homedepot.ca/product/folex-instant-carpet-spot-remover/1000418754 will clean the blood off any fabrics,
bleach the rest.
If you don’t have a sheet or chunks of plywood or mdf to seal the door off from the outside, a local handyman should be able to do the job and have the supplies.
Yeah, covid is always an issue these days, but you can’t do anything about it right now but wait.
Suzanne
@CaseyL: I want the dude to be either in a secure mental health facility or in prison more than I care about the stuff. I am typical squishy liberal about nonviolent drug crime, and a huge supporter of mental health treatment without stigma, but when you break into a house with children, well, get fucked.
Jay
@Suzanne:
if you are worried going forward, 3M makes a window film that turns plain glass panes into kinda a “windshield” product. Holds the shattered glass together and is almost impossible to cut or smash through.
https://www.3mcanada.ca/3M/en_CA/solar-security-films-ca/residential-window-films/safety-security/?utm_campaign=is_wfilms-res-security&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_content=locdist_b&utm_term=tebg-csd-winhome-en_ca-eng-wfilmsres-security-cpc-google-na-na-na-jan21-na
Mary G
@Suzanne: That’s why I blame Reagan. Closing the mental health facilities was a major sin.
delk
@Suzanne: yikes! I’m glad you and your family are safe. Make sure to document everything.
Jay
@Mary G:
here, due to decades of abuse, major lawsuits, scandals, the Social Credit Party, ( conservatives), closed all the public mental health wards, ( other than 24 hour hospital psyche wards),
Put the inmates out on the street with a meagre welfare (disability) cheque,
rather than fix the system.
The results were predictable.
Felanius Kootea
@Suzanne: That sounds absolutely terrifying. Hope you are all safe.
Felanius Kootea
@Suzanne: That sounds absolutely terrifying. Hope you are all safe.
Felanius Kootea
FYWP
Yutsano
@Jay: So… basically they copied Reagan in the 80s. He cut federal funding for asylums and suddenly homelessness and crime exploded.
Suzanne
I will note that there is a public psychiatric hospital in the middle of Pittsburgh. I am sure that there is not enough capacity. This dude looked really methy.
Jay
@Yutsano:
Yurp.
CaseyL
Need a mood lightener?
Cats hold Vitamix hostage
…and, of course, the resultant Twitter thread.
Jay
@Suzanne:
quite often, “commitment” requires either family+lawyers+psychs, or a psych eval negating a criminal sentence.
Here, there are hospital psych wards good for a 24 hour hold, or awaiting transfer, and facilities to hold those deemed criminally insane.
Long care facilities for the mentally disabled and short term facilities for more than 24 hours, don’t exist.
Suzanne
@Jay: It’s different state by state, but one can be held for up to 72 hours for a psychiatric issue (psychotic episode, drug detox, whatever) with a report by a police officer in most states.
This dude is going to a medical hospital first, though. He’s a bloody mess. The paramedics had to take him off my porch on a gurney.
bemused senior
@Suzanne: Sounds like several of mY LAPD daughter’s calls she responds to. Probably half are dealing with mentally ill people or people who are high.
Suzanne
@bemused senior: 1 out of 5, do not recommend.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: OMG, how awful for you and your family. So glad everyone is safe. Hopefully your insurance company will help you sort it all out quickly.
sab
Suzanne, that’s terrible.
This is a certainly a full service blog, with guy available with useful handyman advice when a meth head breaks into your house at night.
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
Can we pick the object used for the procedure? I have some interesting ideas…..
Sebastian
@Jay:
for blood only hydrogen peroxide, not bleach. Bleach will destroy colors and fabrics. H2O2 won’t
Sebastian
@Suzanne:
You can clean the blood (easiest when not completely dried) with hydrogen peroxide. The oxidation violently breaks down the hemoglobin, it foams white, that how you know it works. Keep wiping away and soaking with more H2O2. Your preferred pharmacy should have plenty in stock.
Jay
@Sebastian:
bleach for the deck and hard surfaces, Folex for fabrics and soft surfaces.
sadly, a bunch of my customers, are crime scene cleaners.
but yeah, hydrogen peroxide for soft surfaces if you can’t get your hands on Folex.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
Been away from the blog so just reading about this. Can you folks go to a hotel for at least one night? Seems like it might be a bit less stressful.
Suzanne
I wiped down the doorknobs and the gate with Clorox wipes (I wore exam gloves) because it’s what I have and I need to be able to go in and out I’m calling the insurance company and pros for the rest.
Suzanne
@Ruckus: Mr. Suzanne wants to stay.
Eolirin
@Jay: Long term care facilities have historically been hugely problematic for people with mental health conditions. The mental health advocacy groups in the US at least do not want a return to that system. And until Reagan defunded it, the plan for shuttering the asylums involved significant funding for services that would be more community integrated.
Which honestly probably would not have worked in the US anyway, because NIMBYism and general prejudice are so damn overpowering. But long term care for anyone that isn’t severely impaired to the point that they need constant supervision to not hurt themselves or others, and that’s a tiny tiny number of people, and almost certainly not our naked guy, is not a real solution.
Eolirin
@Yutsano: I’m gonna need a citation on “crime exploded” since I’m pretty sure it didn’t, and at least violent crime has been more or less steadily dropping since the 70s. Most people with severe mental health conditions aren’t going around commiting crimes, even incidentally.
Jay
@Eolirin:
here, the problem was “qualifications”, abuse, and systemic abuse.
barely above minimum wage, barely qualified staff were given “control” over the disadvantaged. Like Residential Schools in process.
Rather than reform the system and put in proper safeguards, create “livable” systems, they just bailed.
Many of those kicked to the streets and given barely a welfare check, died. There was no support once they were out.
There still is really no “living assistance” programs other than from various volunteer Mental Health advocacy groups.
Jay
@Eolirin:
here, “crime” exploded. Half naked guy yelling at a bus, drug use and alcohol used in public as people self medicated, minor property crime, street begging, etc,
most of which I don’t consider crimeing but the Cops and others do.
But then, I am weird. When the BC Gov decided after years of overdoses to make Narcan kits finally free, I picked up a dozen. 2 in my daypack, 10 scattered around our work First Aid kits, so after years of having the self medicated overdose in our bathroom stalls, having to call 9/11, have people die, we can finally do something about it.
We’ve had half a dozen defibs for a decade, but no Narcans.
opiejeanne
@lgerard: I’m going to say something terribly sexist, and I apologize if it hurts anyone’s feelings here, but de Santis is a guy and a lot of guys don’t go to the doctor unless dragged there by their partner. It’s possible that he is one of those (I feel fine, honey. Why should I see a doctor?) and his wife doesn’t have the strength to make him go.
Eolirin
@Jay: Mental health advocates will correctly point out that regardless of the amount of safeguards that you can put into place, the entire structure of what long term facilities were meant to do inevitably means that you’re warehousing people who are disabled so that neurotypical people don’t have to interact with them rather than providing accommodations so that they can live in actual communities and make decisions about their own lives. There is not a single modern treatment approach to mental health that does not involve community integration on some level.
There is no way to square asylums with self determination and dignity because they are still, fundamentally, prisons. There is no way to make that system work and outside of medically necessary cases, which are extremely rare, it isn’t something we should be longing for a return to any more than we should be longing for a return to lobotomies or heavy tranquilizer use
We need those “living assistance” programs.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
not sexist, fact.
some of us guys are “smartish”.
I go to the clinic, ( no Dr, that’s a joke here) or ER based on my medical knowledge and life experience, when I know it’s a problem.
In contrast, my brother, married to a heath care worker goes to the Dr, Clinic, ER for example, pneumonia, when he can’t breathe, despite getting it badly ever 2-4 years, and refuses, the vaxx, ( it’s just a cold).
When I got slammed on my ass by a ladder fall, ( stacked, not off), I knew I had a hematoma and butt bruising on that area, for which nothing could be done, so why waste medical time. As I am MRSA colonized, I just monitored for infection.
Eolirin
@Jay: Crime exploding only makes sense in the context of aggregates, not individual experiences. There’s no way to draw a line between this and asylums being shutteted either.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
It is a 6/half dozen decision. It is almost 6 am there so probably better staying. Likely wouldn’t much sleep either way. Good luck with your insurance company.
opiejeanne
@Suzanne: Yeah, I wouldn’t want to leave either, what with the door unsecured.
I’m sorry this happened to you and your family. I can imagine the shock.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
Macho is a deadly disease. As much for the practitioner as everyone else. Severe macho can be much worse. Some grow out of it as they age past about 25, many just get worse and worse.
opiejeanne
@Ruckus: I look at my friends’ husbands and think how lucky I am. I hardly have to nag him at all.
Chetan Murthy
@opiejeanne:
When women run the world, what you said could be viewed as sexist. But today? Men, cishet men, men like me, run the world, and honestly, you’re just stating a fact about a certain (too large, includes me, sigh, 4yr since I saw a doc) subset of men. You’re 100% right.
lgerard
@opiejeanne:
I know, I’m one of those guys. I went for a physical last week for the first time in 3 years and only because I have some issues that could not be ignored any longer.
That still doesn’t excuse his ignorance. It seems common for wingnuts just to expose what they view as “common sense” regardless as to whether it actually makes sense.
Steeplejack (phone)
@CaseyL:
Jay
@Eolirin:
the Westwood Model proposed, was “supported housing”, transit, supports and check ins, “ check ons”. Basically levels of “mental healthcare” ranging from semi independent living to the criminally insane,
But it would have cost $25k at the time per patient on average, so instead they paid $2.8 billion in class action lawsuits and the. $24k a year in welfare.
A “ in custody of the State” requires many, many complex levels of care, and many protections of the vulnerable. Here, they couldn’t be bothered.
I have a small number of customers in “independent living”, who only want to deal with me. Some just come by for the socialization. For many, they know I am not “ripping them off”, “feeding them BS”, and use every communication skill I have, to inform them.
one of my “atypical” customers comes by every two weeks or so, just to chat these days.
Their toilet was sinking into the floor. Their landlord refused to do anything. The advocacy groups were going legal, which doesn’t help timewise, when you can’t use the toilet. Using a bunch of various communication techniques, I walked them through replacing the subfloor, the bathroom laminate, day after day, until it was done.
I billed them the rentals and the materials, so they had documentation they could “go after” the landlord for, then, through the old system, gave a full refund. Two sets of paperwork.
€uck that@sshole.
Community matters.
Jay
@Eolirin:
here, “crime” exploded.
serious crime, nope.
minor so called “crimes” like peeing in bushes or yelling at clouds,
yeah.
the Cops reports run the crime stats and most media didn’t parse the data,
So yeah, “crime” stats ballooned, “arrests” ballooned,
was it “real crime”, nope.
When they closed down Westwood, and tore down some of the residential buildings, I had less problem with crime, even than petty crime, than with displaced rats,
which kinda tells you how well the “residential” facilities were. I killed about 60 over that summer.
Ruckus
@lgerard:
If common sense was actually common more people would have some of it
I might be a lucky guy in some ways, I had a major aftereffect from the measles and was used to seeing doctors. It never seemed to me to be any kind of issue to go. I spent 2 months in hospital in the navy, I spent 9 days with a 105 fever in boot camp. Doctors, hospitals are a normal part of life for me. And I want to be as healthy as I can be, and understand that often that requires doctors.
WereBear
What a shocking evening for the whole Suzanne family! My sympathies.
Jay
@Ruckus:
here, one of the issues, is getting a Doctor. I hav’t had a GP since 1985.
I’m currently on a wait list, maybe in the next two years,
So, it’s a clinic, ( line up at 6am, like concert tickets), telemedicine, ( mostly useless), or the ER, (covid swamp).
Ruckus
@Jay:
I think it used to be easier here in SoCal to get a doctor, now it seems to be a pain in the ass. And that is one reason that I like the VA healthcare system. Most of the docs/nurses are pretty good, some are great. I’ve had so many MRI scans that I’ve lost count. Cancer treatment, etc. My major problem is I’m 45 miles from the closest VA hospital and 25 from the closest clinic. But in non pandemic times I could ride the commuter train to the hospital except the first and last 2 miles is bus. Now I really don’t like ridding the train, it seems a bigger risk than driving.
WereBear
@Jay: I had a GP for 20 years, he retired, and it was excruciating to find one and get an appointment to even be considered!
Jay
@Ruckus:
@WereBear:
here, sadly, the Doc’s control the process of certing the Docs,
so there are fewer Doc’s going through the system to get certified than needed,
then, Foreign Doc’s have to jump through major hoops to get certified,
now Covid,
then “Brain Drain”, a bunch of graduates head south, because they can make in a year, what what they would make in a decade up here.
forget exactly where it was, somewhere in Albertistan, the only Dr for 800 miles, quit, because of Covid death threats. Will help the selection of a new DR, 5 months, 0 applicants.
Ksmiami
@Suzanne: I’m so sorry this happened- definitely hire a crime scene clean up company though – get the recommendation from your insurance company as this will make it easier to get reimbursement. Sorry to say that most of the bled upon items will need to be destroyed . And ask the insurance co who they work with contractor wise to get out there asap and fix your door. I hope you all aren’t too traumatized.
JWR
@Steeplejack (phone): This is my current DougJ fave:
lowtechcyclist
@Joe Falco:
This is one of our biggest problems: there’s far, far too much money floating around at the top. Far more than can be invested in producing new goods and services. So the ultra-rich have plenty of money left over to bend our political system all out of shape.
The top tax rate is currently 37%. It needs to be more like 90%.
evodevo
@Suzanne: since he was naked in 30 degree weather, he was probably on one of those combinations druggies buy nowadays…comtains Jimson weed (scopolamine/atropine/etc. along with meth and who knows what else) – it makes you burn up (was he red-faced?), makes you angry, and impervious to pain – takes a couple days to wear off. ERs in districts that deal with overdoses, etc. usually have the remedy (physostimine) on hand to dose them with, it’s so frequent now. You are just lucky he didn’t have access to a gun or knife. A local boy killed his grandfather and tried to kill his grandmother while on the stuff. Now doing time for murder as a juvie…
JPL
@Suzanne: That is horrifying, and I hope that you are able to replace the door quickly. I’m so glad that you are all safe.
evodevo
@evodevo: Atropine/scopolamine overdose mnemonic for ER staff: used to describe the physiologic manifestations of atropine overdose is: “hot as a hare, blind as a bat, dry as a bone, red as a beet, and mad as a hatter”. And the remedy is physostigmine
Percysowner
@dmsilev: Blood pressure screening, glucose and other tests for diabetes. As an older lady, I get tests out the wazoo to make sure I live longer and prevent illnesses.
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
Lord have mercy!????
rikyrah
@Jay:
What an asshole???
Betty
@Suzanne: I am sure it will take time for you to feel totally secure even if you take steps to protect against something like this happening again. Wishing you and your family steady progress in putting this behind you.
cmorenc
@Eolirin:
There’s no way to square a person whose mental state is “dangerous to self or others” with self-determination and dignity, and the strong majority of them won’t take or resume their meds voluntarily without at least a few days of involuntary commitment. BTW: I once worked in the state psychiatric hospital for two years representing people in commitment hearings, and I’m well aware that not everone the police or relatives try to shuttle off to these facilities belongs there, but many others arrive too dysfuntional, delusional, and menacing to be quickly trusted with running around unconfined and without constant supervision.
jonas
@Eolirin: Crime started rising in the 70s and peaked in the early 90s. Mental illness in and of itself doesn’t predispose people to being violent. What happens when it goes untreated, though, is that people self-medicate with alcohol and drugs, which can lead to involvement in crime and violent behavior.
The poor guy who busted into Suzanne’s house sounds like a classic case of someone probably with underlying mental issues who was high on meth or (more likely) PCP.
jonas
@evodevo: I’d say the guy was lucky he didn’t break into a house where someone had a loaded firearm handy. Had he burst into the wrong house, he’d be dead now, rather than coming down in an ER.
Ruckus
I see this a bit different than many might. Not the actual crime that was committed but the health of the person. For many people actual living is difficult. They very often do not have the skills to deal with crap happening to them, even crap of their own fault. And we don’t really have the will to deal with that. We used to, but it got abused (of course it did) and mostly it was done away with. So people get help when they get to this guy’s point, with the police and courts involved and when injuries and damage are almost always involved. And of course we have some lovely chemicals to help those along who don’t need any help in that direction. Yes this is one person’s issue, but it’s also an issue of society, and the ability to live within it. I’m not excusing this person’s issues or responsibility for their actions, I’m saying we have deceived ourselves that we are all free persons, to do whatever we want until we do damage to someone else – which is too damn late. We know far more about medicine than we did 50 yrs ago, and yet we abuse medicine even more now than was done that 50 yrs ago. We have devolved to being less than an actual country that takes care of those that can’t take care of themselves, who lack the skills, who get into situations that they can not get out of by themselves and for the most part we say tough shit. And things like Suzanne’s extremely bad day happen. I of course don’t have a clue why this guy did this, it may be extremely out of character and he may have no desire to have done this, but he did. The confluence of events that led up to this likely have some predictability, the drugs involved may be easy to get but the concept that enough people can likely predict what he took to get here is/should be scary because it means that it is not uncommon. Is this behavior common in other parts of the world? It might be in some parts but I’d bet it isn’t in many. And some places will handle it badly but we handle it by picking up the pieces, cleaning up the mess and by having folks like Suzanne and family endure crap because we don’t effectively deal with our societies issues of monetary imbalance, common wellness and a healthcare system based upon the same concept, those with money are better and deserve more, those without deserve to die. This sort of bullshit is going to destroy this country if we let it.
Denali
@Suzanne,
I am so sorry- truly terrifying. My sister’s next door neighbor had a mental health episode on Thursday in Texas. Six police and an ambulance took her away, and now she is back home. Hope she takes her medications.
No name
@Ruckus: Thank you for saying this. I’ve had a very difficult year and can now understand how someone who may have not even had issues such as depression, substance abuse, etc. can get to a very bad point, and sometimes very quickly.