The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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The World Is Dying

You know it, I know it. The world is broken and falling in to chaos.

During World War II, economic collapse and deterioration led to most of the world's leading nations falling in to dictatorships. People back then were very different than they are now, however. People now are used to being independent, of telling themselves what to do, of buying what they want and having what they want. They don't need a fascist or communist leader to be nasty for them - they know how to do it themselves.

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You're Not Adam Lanza

Almost as disturbing as the massacre in Connecticut has been some of the response to it. One article called "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother" is by a woman who has an intelligent son prone to violent and scary moods. As far as it seems, those bad moods haven't gone to the point of murdering grade schoolers but she nevertheless acts as if it has.

David Frum recently posted another one of these by a reader - it was called "I Was Adam Lanza:"

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Confusion Breeds Violence

Hello all. I have alot to say about all these shootings, which is unfortunate but this is the place to do it, right?

Some of you added me on Facebook and I really appreciate it. The SSRI group I help with has really taken off and we get brilliance regularly out of it. Stuff like this:

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Mental Health And Social Isolation

Hello all - I got a comment here that told me most of what I write is "about me." Tell me if I'm doing that too much please. Since I'm writing about social isolation, it would probably be appropriate to not sound too socially isolated, right? Heh.

After I had my breakdown, which was so significant I don't know how to write without talking about it, I became a frequent at a local psychiatric clinic in Seattle.

I was there every day. They all know pretty well. Everyone there knows one another pretty well.

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Tragedy In Pictures

You can provide your own context here, I think. These two pictures kind of incapsulate more than can be said:

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Coming Out About Mental Illness

It takes alot to come out with acceptance that one has mental difficulties. My brain is not oriented quite the way a normal man's should. My behavior is erratic and my interest in things tends to be a mix of the obsessive and depressive.

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For These Tragedies To End, We Must Change - SSRIs and Violence

Hello all....

I've taken down my posts recently. I tried to get away from this website and this discussion but -- I can't.

Reading some of the comments that I got which obviously misunderstood what I was saying made me at once sad that my attempts to articulate what I think is causing this horror were being misunderstood. I got paid to talk about public issues for several years but I found it really upsetting when I was getting comments basically accusing me of nonsense. It is much easier to stomach criticism and grow a thick skin when you are talking about institutional racism or economic policy than when you are trying to articulate the cause of mass murder. I especially felt uncomfortable with the fact that I was writing may be hurting or offending people.

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Drugs And Guns

Hello all.

I want to make a serious point of contention. In my post following the elementary school shootings in Connecticut, I put SSRIs as a possible reason for all of this. I got some overt hostility that seemed a bit irrational.

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