Tag Archive for: suicide

Unsaid: Joseph Rosenbaum Might Have Committed Suicide-by-Rittenhouse

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Why would you chase and lunge at, or otherwise attack, a young man who’s carrying a semi-automatic rifle? This is what happened last August 25th in the Kyle Rittenhouse affair, and it’s crazy behavior. Yet with respect to at least one of the three men shot in self-defense by Rittenhouse, Joseph Rosenbaum, there may be a logical explanation for such craziness:

Rosenbaum really was, clinically speaking, crazy.

We’ve heard much about the criminal records of the three Rittenhouse assailants’ who were shot (and a bit about the checkered past of the fourth attacker, who wasn’t shot), and rightly so. But underemphasized in Rosenbaum’s case is that he actually was what we today call “mentally ill,” having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Why is this relevant? It not only helps explain his irrational behavior, but there’s also this:

It’s not unusual for mentally ill people to attempt suicide — and to sometimes conscript others into their self-destructive endeavors.

Note that Rosenbaum “was on antidepressants and medication to treat his bipolar disorder,” NPR reported his fiancée, Kariann Swart, as having testified at the Rittenhouse trial. “He had been in a hospital following a suicide attempt” (emphasis added) and was released the very day he was shot.

Point two: A witness in the trial said Rosenbaum “was acting aggressively and repeatedly challenged a group of armed men to shoot him,” (emphasis added) Reuters informed November 5 — as if he wanted to die.

Point three: The suicide risk for bipolar individuals is 17 times that of the general population; in fact, an estimated “20-60% of patients with bipolar disorder attempt suicide at least once in their lifetime,” writes UTHealth.

Point four: When I mentioned Rosenbaum possibly having committed suicide-by-Rittenhouse to someone close to me who has great experience with bipolar disorder, she said, “Usually it’s suicide by cop [with such people].” She knows whereof she speaks, too. As The American Journal of Psychiatry tells us, suicide by cop “is reported to be more prevalent in males with psychiatric disorders (i.e., chronic depression, bipolar disorders….)” (emphasis added).

Rosenbaum didn’t have cops at his disposal, being as the feckless Wisconsin authorities restrained the police and let Kenosha burn. But Rittenhouse was available. As with the Vigilance Committee in San Francisco in 1851 — which was instituted to quell lawlessness — he was doing the job the government wouldn’t do.

Unfortunately for Rittenhouse, this might have included dealing with a mentally deranged, early-middle-age man who was looking to have someone do a job on him that he wouldn’t (or couldn’t) do. This, again, isn’t unheard of.

Know that bipolar disorder, whatever its cause (and I entertain a non-mainstream theory on this), constitutes genuine insanity. Sufferers often find living with their cross intolerable and fancy death a welcome escape. I personally know of a man thus afflicted who recruited someone, a person clearly disturbed in his own way, who was willing to perform a Dr. Kevorkian on him (thankfully, the plan was thwarted).

Why does any of this matter with respect to Rosenbaum? It certainly doesn’t change what the man did when attacking Rittenhouse or the justness of the latter’s response. Yet speaking for myself, I always find truth interesting, and my theory is tenable. What’s more, it underlines further what Rittenhouse might have been facing last August 25th. It may mean that within all the insanity, he might have been facing actual insanity in the form of a man who perhaps had nothing to lose except what he wanted to — his life.

Contact Selwyn Duke; follow him on Gab, MeWe, or Parler; or log on to SelwynDuke.com.

©Selwyn Duke. All rights reserved.

CDC: A Quarter of Young Adults Say They Contemplated Suicide This Summer During Pandemic

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The collateral damage of lockdowns must not be ignored.

In economics, we talk a lot about unintended consequences.

It’s easy to forget that societies are complex ecosystems. Legislators often pass sweeping changes hoping to achieve one result, not realizing it will create countless other consequences not intended.

Some of the unintended consequences will be positive, but many of them will not be. A case in point can be found in new government statistics that show a surge in suicidal thoughts among young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Via Politico:

One in four young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 say they’ve considered suicide in the past month because of the pandemic, according to new CDC data that paints a bleak picture of the nation’s mental health during the crisis.

The data also flags a surge of anxiety and substance abuse, with more than 40 percent of those surveyed saying they experienced a mental or behavioral health condition connected to the Covid-19 emergency. The CDC study analyzed 5,412 survey respondents between June 24 and 30.

The toll is falling heaviest on young adults, caregivers, essential workers and minorities. While 10.7 percent of respondents overall reported considering suicide in the previous 30 days, 25.5 percent of those between 18 to 24 reported doing so. Almost 31 percent of self-reported unpaid caregivers and 22 percent of essential workers also said they harbored such thoughts. Hispanic and Black respondents similarly were well above the average.

The article says the mental health crisis stems “from the pandemic,” but it’s more accurate to say it stems far more from our collective reaction to the pandemic, not the actual virus.

Locking down economies and ordering healthy people to remain isolated might have succeeded, to some degree, in slowing the spread of the virus. But it was also a surefire way to make people miserable.

Lockdowns result in job loss, anxiety, and despair. Scientists have long known the effects of social isolation aren’t just harmful, but deadly.

The New York Times explained the deadly consequences of social isolation in 2016:

A wave of new research suggests social separation is bad for us. Individuals with less social connection have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones. One recent study found that isolation increases the risk of heart disease by 29 percent and stroke by 32 percent.

Another analysis that pooled data from 70 studies and 3.4 million people found that socially isolated individuals had a 30 percent higher risk of dying in the next seven years, and that this effect was largest in middle age.

Loneliness can accelerate cognitive decline in older adults, and isolated individuals are twice as likely to die prematurely as those with more robust social interactions. These effects start early: Socially isolated children have significantly poorer health 20 years later, even after controlling for other factors. All told, loneliness is as important a risk factor for early death as obesity and smoking.

Many of the consequences listed here will take years to analyze and document, but we’ve seen glimpses of more immediate unintended consequences already: rampant suicide, surging drug overdoses, increases in domestic violence, economic destruction, and many others.

None of these consequences were intended when lawmakers passed sweeping lockdowns, but that does not make them less real. Nor do pure intentions absolve lawmakers of responsibility.

The famed economist Milton Friedman once observed that perhaps the greatest threat to liberty comes “from men of good intentions and good will who wish to reform us.”

In this case, the well-intentioned seek not to reform us but to protect us. But as Friedman noted, “concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.” Indeed, many of the greatest atrocities in history have been perpetrated by well-meaning people.

Above all else, we must judge lockdowns by their actual results, not what they were designed to do.

If we fail in that, these troubling CDC statistics are likely to become the norm, not the exception.

COLUMN BY:

Jon Miltimore

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Islamic Roulette: Like Russian Roulette but with Six Bullets

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From the team that brought you Living with Moderate Muslims, the Board Game, comes a special package for Muslim Appreciation Month:

ISLAMIC ROULETTE

How to play:

  1. Load a revolver with six bullets.
  2. Aim it towards your head.
  3. Say “It has nothing to do with Islam” and pull the trigger. This ends the game.

We also have versions customized for various world cultures:

The German version:

The French version:

The Canadian version:

The Darwin version comes with an automatic entry into Darwin Awards contest.

And, of course, the international Marxist version:

Special thanks to Comrade Minitrue for the idea posted in one of his comments.

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EDITORS NOTE: This political satire originally appeared on The Peoples Cube.

Gender Ideology Harms Children: Human sexuality an objective biological trait!

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From American College of Pediatricians, March, 2016

The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.

1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose being the reproduction and flourishing of our species. This principle is self-evident. The exceedingly rare disorders of sexual differentiation (DSDs), including but not limited to testicular feminization and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, are all medically identifiable deviations from the sexual binary norm, and are rightly recognized as disorders of human design. Individuals with DSDs do not constitute a third sex.

2. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one. No one is born with an awareness of themselves as male or female; this awareness develops over time and, like all developmental processes, may be derailed by a child’s subjective perceptions, relationships, and adverse experiences from infancy forward. People who identify as “feeling like the opposite sex” or “somewhere in between” do not comprise a third sex. They remain biological men or biological women.

3. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V). The psychodynamic and social learning theories of GD/GID have never been disproved.

4. Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous.Reversible or not, puberty- blocking hormones induce a state of disease – the absence of puberty – and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child.

5. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.

6. Children who use puberty blockers to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late adolescence. Cross-sex hormones are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.

7. Rates of suicide are twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBQT – affirming countries. What compassionate and reasonable person would condemn young children to this fate knowing that after puberty as many as 88% of girls and 98% of boys will eventually accept reality and achieve a state of mental and physical health?

8. Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents, leading more children to present to “gender clinics” where they will be given puberty-blocking drugs. This, in turn, virtually ensures that they will “choose” a lifetime of carcinogenic and otherwise toxic cross-sex hormones, and likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults.

Michelle A. Cretella, M.D.
President of the American College of Pediatricians

Quentin Van Meter, M.D.
Vice President of the American College of Pediatricians
Pediatric Endocrinologist

Paul McHugh, M.D.
University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital

CNS: American College of Pediatricians: Gender ideology harms children

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is by Credit: Adrian NiederhÃ?¤user | Shutterstock

Hey Muslims — What Sense Does Committing Suicide Trying to Kill a Jew make?

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Pictured in this video is Hammam Said a 23 year old dead Muslim. He attempted to stab an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in Tel Rumeida and was shot dead by Israeli forces.

That’s it, his young life is over.

On Monday October 26th, 2015 Hammam had many years of life before him, a life where he could have fallen in love, married, raised children and become a very productive member of the human race. Instead, through the agitation of his friends, family and “Palestinian ” leaders young Hammam decided to throw his life away and try to kill at least one Jew.

He failed, he is dead.

Moreover, there is at least a 50% chance that there are not 72 virgins waiting for Hammam and that the whole Islamic martyr thing is one gigantic lie, designed to make sorry souls like Hammam do stupid stuff and completely waste their lives. Besides, what God in his right mind wants His children to run up to people and stab them in the neck?

So Muslims, as you get all “Allahu Akbared” in celebrating Hammam’s completely foolish and wasteful death ask yourself a couple of questions.

Do you think your life and future is fully realized by trying to kills Jews or maybe even succeeding in killing one or two Jews?

Do you really (and I mean REALLY) believe if you try to kill that Jew then God will reward you with all these girls in heaven who are waiting to have sex with you?

Look Muslim, you actually have many choices in life and really can do something positive and productive with your life or you can go the way of Hammam Said.

I have an idea, maybe you should get Hammam’s insight as to why he took his path.

Oh wait, Hammam is dead.

This is what happens when you remove God from the public square

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I received an email from Sarasota, Florida resident Tad MacKie with a link to an Associated Press article titled, “Teen charged with encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself.” The article is about the suicide death of a teenager. The AP reports:

At first glance, the text messages appear to show a disturbing case of cyberbullying: one teen urging another to kill himself.

But the texts were not sent by a school bully. They were from a 17-year-old girl to her boyfriend, whom she called the love of her life.

“You can’t think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were gonna do it. Like I don’t get why you aren’t,” Michelle Carter allegedly wrote to Conrad Roy III the day he parked his truck outside a Fairhaven Kmart and killed himself through carbon monoxide poisoning.

Michelle Carter

Michelle Carter and boyfriend Conrad Roy.

MacKie reflected on this article and wrote:

THIS is what happens when “there is no God”…

One lost, misguided, emotionally and intellectually retarded, product of pop culture, psycho-babble and political correctness, texting back and forth to another lost, misguided, emotionally and intellectually retarded, product of pop culture, psycho-babble and political correctness… BOTH totally self absorbed and totally screwed-up, counting on life’s circumstances and other people to create some meaning in their lives.

The whole thing is tragic but totally predictable.

The plain, hard, truth being that, without God, and I’m talking about Jesus, here, life is tragically meaningless. Without being able to KNOW truth… (“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life”… Jesus said that.)… Without being emotionally and intellectually confident of the Truth, when life becomes “unbearable” there is NOTHING to sustain us through it.

My own experiences have shown me, beyond ANY shadow of doubt, when life is a confused, mind-numbing, whirlwind of angry reaction to circumstance and/or the extremely hurtful actions of others, the “still, small voice” comes through all the noise and confusion, bringing the realization that, as my dear Mother used to say, “This, too, shall pass.”

With no God and no eternal life, not only is there no “still, small voice” to carry us through, there’s no reason to go through it.

The above article painfully illustrates the results.

Also, please note that there is NO mention of parents of either one… Just an aunt and a grandparent. While it may be a mere coincidence or oversight, it seems to be, more and more, the “norm”.

What about YOU…? Take away all that you have and all your ability to do what you do… Job, home, spouse, kids, money, health, mobility, TV, internet, peer approval, professional respect, all the while your “friends” telling you that you MUST have done something wrong because, as we all know, “what goes around, comes around”… What do YOU have left? What would be YOUR reason to continue to live?

May I suggest, if you’re coming up empty-handed, you might want to look into this whole Jesus “thing” a bit more seriously because the “Shrink” will just hook you on some “anti-depressant” drugs that, while temporarily masking the reality will, ultimately, kill you anyway.

MacKie is right, this whole thing is tragic but totally predictable, when you take God out of the public square.

VIDEO: Al-Aqsa Retirement Plan (AARP) Commercial

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Impending cuts in your social security benefits? Can’t afford erectile dysfunction medicine, Cadillac payments, lottery tickets, trips to Vegas, expanded cable service, gifts to grand kids, and veterinary care for your two dogs and five cats?

Sign up for Al-Aqsa Retirement Plan! Yours shall be an abode with a dome of pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, with 80,000 servants and 72 virgin wives. Can your American social security give you such an abode? Nonsense! You shall be attended by boys graced with eternal youth, looking like sprinkled pearls. And your family shall get 25,000 dollars upon signing.

All you have to do is strap yourself to a comfortable explosive device designed by our experienced professionals, and greet a crowd of infidels in the streets!

Do not reveal your connection to Al-Aqsa Brigades, Hamas, and their associates. We will deny everything. Do not consult your attorney, accountant, or law enforcement. Act normally. Explosives provided by a third party. Results may vary.

EDITORS NOTE: This video originally appeared on The Peoples Cube.