But I like shitting on the sidewalk. 😉

I’m so tired of people opposing a “pro-cop” bias. You can be against corruption in police departments without being pro-criminal. Police are the people we should be supporting, because they enact the force of law, which is what keeps society stable. That there is corruption among the police just means we need to attack that problem directly, not get rid of police. Those who want to get rid of police are anarchist fuckwits who want crime lords to rule society, and they should be dealt with the same way we deal with criminals.

I don’t really see how that’s possible, but okay.

Okay, well, I guess stupid people gonna suffer then.

I don’t see how you could survive a shotgun blast to the back or top of your mouth, much less a bomb. At the very least, the brain stem is vaporized, and you can’t survive without that. I suppose if you turned the barrel to the side and just blew out your cheek and jaw, perhaps, but that’s being stupid.

Yeah, my point was simply that it’s not hard to kill yourself, like the OP asserted. Obviously, many people would have other considerations in mind (e.g. pain, the state of your body afterwards, etc).

It is NOT difficult to kill yourself intentionally, at all.

• Make a simple, strong slip knot to use as a noose, secure it somewhere that will support your body weight, tie your hands behind your back so that you can’t easily get out of the restraints, and jump off a ledge of some kind. It won’t break your neck and you’ll die agonizingly, but you will almost certainly die of asphyxiation. Even more effective if you tie yourself up in weights and jump into deep water.
• Shotgun. Easily procurable in America. Stick in mouth with buckshot and pull trigger. Messy, but effective.
• Lots of ways to make powerful bombs with materials you can find in stores. Make one and set it off in your mouth.
• Lock yourself in a room with carbon monoxide. So long as no one’s coming to get you, it’s a nice, peaceful way to go out.
• Snort a sugar cube’s worth of fentanyl.
• Sever any major artery and get in a bathtub full of water so the wound can’t seal easily. Cope with the pain until you pass out. As long as no one finds you, you dead.

I could go on, but I think I’ve been morbid enough.

Thankfully, suicidal impulses are just that: impulses. They are relatively short-lived (10-20 minutes on average) and then they pass. You may still be depressed, but the urge to end it all is no longer there, for most people. One of the best things you can do when you’re feeling suicidal is just to go to sleep. When you wake up, you’ll likely feel better. The vast majority of people who attempt suicide and live regret it almost immediately, and most of them do not attempt it again.

However, there are people who enter long suicidal states, where they’ve genuinely made up their mind to end their lives. With these people, no matter what the psychiatric intervention is, short of permanently restraining them, they will almost always find a way to kill themselves. The truth is you cannot stop a person who is truly intent on ending their life. And I for one am very thankful for that, because living should always be a choice. We should not be in the business of forcing people to live torturous, agonizing lives from which there is no real escape or remedy. Everyone should have the option of “getting off the ride” if they so choose. Ultimately, it’s no one’s business but their own.

Depends: do you want rules that apply equally to everyone or rules that apply selectively based on your demographic status?

Personally, I choose the former.

If I ran a business, I wouldn’t engage in any political events whatsoever. I don’t think businesses should, quite frankly. Be politically neutral. I don’t believe doing so “supports the status quo,” and thereby oppresses people “de facto,” that’s just pressure from activists to support them. You support gay people on your service by letting them play and putting down any instances of anti-gay rhetoric on your platform. Simple as that.

It’s a good idea, but I’m skeptical of its efficiency in the sense that the people who approve of these cuts aren’t likely to read those op-eds. I kinda suspect a lot of those people don’t read at all.

Beat me to it. 6.6 IMDB, 33% RT. It stars Antonio Banderas as an Arab, but goddamnit I love this flick.

I’m an American atheist Jew, and I’ve had conversations with my (converted) mother about it. She’s pretty solidly on Israel’s side, but she’s also not very educated about the conflict. She just kinda goes by the mainstream media’s narrative and doesn’t think too much beyond that. When I present her with information, she’s horrified and agrees with me that “Israel is going too far,” but it never results in her thinking the U.S. should stop sending them money. She hates Netanyahu and his conservative government, but she’s very hung up on Hamas being a terrorist organization. And I suppose I am too, to be honest. I want a free Palestine and for the Israeli settlers to be expelled, but I don’t want to support Hamas and I think they should pretty much be eradicated. I’m just much more willing to condemn Israel for their actions than she is; she’s very caught on the idea that Israel has a right to defend itself from Palestinian terrorism, and has a hard time seeing that it’s gone way past that at this point.

Mental health counselor here.

The outcomes of treatment for bipolar disorder are unfortunately very variable. It depends on how severe your son’s symptoms are, how well he responds to the medications cocktail he’s being given, what that medication cocktail is, and how well he adheres to it.

The important thing is that your son controls what he can control, which is largely whether or not he takes his meds and how much he engages in therapy. Therapeutic skills involve insight/mindfulness work (i.e. how well your son can recognize his symptoms as they’re happening) and resource use (i.e. does he inform his therapist and/or psychiatrist when he notices he’s be king symptomatic). Mania often feels amazing to people experiencing it, so they’re often motivated against treating it when it occurs, and this is major barrier to treatment.

A big component is whether or not symptoms of psychosis are involved in either the mania or depression. Psychotic symptoms are: 1.) hallucinations (false sensory perceptions, like hearing voices, seeing things, smelling things, etc), 2.) delusions (false beliefs that don’t conform to “normal” societal beliefs, like “I am Jesus” or “God has a mission for me”), and 3.) paranoia (i.e. feeling people around you are hostile to you or are spying on you, etc). These can be experienced in either mood state, but are most often seen in manic states.

I would suggest getting in touch with an organization called NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) as they have tons of resources for people struggling with mental illness and family members of mentally ill people.

“Terryology may have some merits and deserves consideration.”

I don’t hold this opinion, but I can guarantee you it’s unpopular.

And that had absolutely nothing to do with international relations. Instead, it was due to a cult infiltrating his party and getting him on the bad side of a disgruntled family member when their beliefs lead to the death of his mother.

Largely, yeah. I think it would have been fine if we’d stayed in the Iron Age. Things started getting fucked up with the Industrial Revolution.