Last night I got a chance to watch the documentary ‘Casino Jack and the United States of Money’ which was about the life of the criminal, former Lobbyist – Jack Abramoff and the massive GOP corruption scandal in which he was involved during the W. Bush Administration. This film is as good as it gets in terms of documentaries go – 4 star, 5 star… whatever, Alex Gibney, the director (who also made the documentary about Enron) nailed this and I can’t recommend this highly enough -  this is a Must – see. I’m not going to do a movie review (future blog), however I just want to touch on something that struck me last night: how is it possible for a wicked and evil person to be pious, and I mean religious beyond the average i.e. born – again Christian or Orthodox Jew. It doesn’t make sense…it seems incongruous.
If you see the film and listen to the commentary (I recommend it), Alex Gibney raised the point as well – look: Jack Abramoff –Orthodox Jew (comically converted after seeing ‘Fiddler On The Roof), Ralph Reed – born again Christian, Tom Delay, Michael Scanlon, Bob Ney, and the rest of the thugs are all religious zealots. Well, I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Gibney when he theorized that very often religious zealotry and devoted godliness, is in a sense a way of easing one’s conscience; what I’m doing can’t be wrong, God is on my side. I’m the good guy and though bribing people for tens of millions of dollars may seem wrong at face value, it’s a means to an end. They all have this incredible arrogance as though to think ” I’m SPECIAL, I’m not mediocre, I’m allowed to do these things because I’m one of the chosen ones.
I won’t elaborate too much on this and I certainly believe that most ordinary Christians and Jews are good people, WhaDaYaThink ?  how can you rationalize or compartmentalize  such immoral action and with such passion and ambition – not all of these people are pathologically sociopathic.
What do you think ?    

Wow!!! For anyone who has ever suffered from severe depression, the movie to see is “Helen.” I’m stating the obvious when I say that the film is not an uplifting movie nor is it for everyone; I see that “Rotten Tomatoes” has rated it 33% out of a possible 100% – not very good at the box office, but that’s beside the point, everyone knows I hate mainstream features. Wow, what remarkably credible performances by both  Ashley Judd and also the supporting actress (don’t know her name) who played Mathilda – it must have been draining and exhausting – my God !
I’m not going to do a movie review and because this is a blog, I am not going to delve very deeply on all of the reasons why a person may become clinically depressed, but rather I’m going to write a little something looking through one miniscule lens; goes without mention,one would have to write a tome in order to shed any light  on such a perplexing, complicated, and misunderstood disease such as clinical depression.

Why was she depressed, one may ask ? The protagonist in the film, “Helen” had everything – she was attractive, intelligent, had a great job, she was musically gifted, married to a wonderfully supportive and loving husband, was upper middle class and financially secure, had a beautiful daughter, etc.

David Foster Wallace – real life, celebrated novelist and professor committed suicide on September 12, 2008 at the age of 46. He had it all one would think – fame, money, genius (and I mean genius, no one since James Joyce could even come close to David). Why would he throw away a life, his own, when he had what most of us can only dream and fantasize about. David also had drug and alcohol problems which is not unlike throwing gasoline on fire – but addiction and depression go hand in hand, sisters … self- medication. David Foster Wallace suffered from suicidal depression his entire adult life and when his loved ones begged him to LIVE – his response: (my words, but the essence of what David said) you’re asking me to refrain from jumping out of a house that is on fire and engulfing me – suffocating me, drowning me… I can’t explain.

My favorite book of all on the topic of depression was also written by another famous novelist, William Styron, ‘Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness’ Yes, that is correct, the same guy who wrote the best – selling, and book – turned – into  – movie ‘Sophie’s Choice’ became suicidally – depressed interestingly after he could no longer tolerate “drinking socially” – suddenly and abruptly making him violently ill, by the way. This little  book (maybe 100 + pages) encapsulated “WHAT” depression is, which can really only be conveyed via metaphor because it’s such a fishy affliction.

I have been studying and researching the causes and reasons for this crazy, irrational sort of illness for a long time. I believe that depression is neuronal & hormonal (I am not dismissing talk and cognitive therapy) and a physical disease that only medication and even under extreme circumstances, perhaps shock treatment, can cure.

WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? I am not a doctor, this is a blog and my opinion of course, so…  I hope this prodigiously serious illness isn’t misinterpreted as glib and facile – because I know what it’s like.   And Watch that movie!!! It’s the real thing and shouldn’t be 33%.

The most effective and most powerful tool the government or big corporations of any kind can possess to control vast numbers of people is bureaucracy. The secret and key to bureaucracy is to make it as large (full of red tape) messy , complicated, and Labyrinthine enough so that one (actually part of the bureaucracy but doesn’t know it) is so involved with his or her own little task, not unlike a cog in a big machine, that it becomes impossible to see the big picture. The Nazis were simply the best at bureaucratizing, propagandizing (bureaucracy’s twin) everything so that 98% of its citizenry were in the dark on everything and as for the other intellectual 2%, Hitler’s henchmen just used brute force to shut them up.
One of the preeminent authors of the twentieth Century, Franz Kafka, spent his entire writing career spilling ink on bureaucracy, and for which his legacy is forever embedded in the annals of literary thought and social consciousness. Yes, the eponymous adjective, Kafkaesque, describes the senseless (for us) multi- layered, prodigiously frustrating menacing complexity the super – rich minority use to control the poor and middle – class majority with laser beam precision.
Now Hitler and Nazism is certainly the most extreme example of bureaucracy gone twistedly awry, however every single person on the face of the earth must deal with it every single day of our lives. The spectrum is monumentally wide from having to fill out endless forms and other paper work and waiting on long snaking lines at Motor Vehicle to life and death circumstances when an innocent person is sitting on death row because all of the powers that be have not signed the pertinent paperwork. What’s so awe-inspiringly Machiavellian and efficacious about bureaucracy is that 1. It seems to have a life of its own, no human intervention is necessary once it’s successfully emplaced i.e. Microsoft doesn’t exist, it’s a corporate entity – it’s not tangible. 2. No one person gets blamed – the more convoluted and intricately involved the bureaucracy is, the more effective and numbers of blameless people you have. We all have heard the statement, “I was only following orders”, “My boss told me to do it”, “It’s company’s policy…” ad infinitum.
Regular readers of this blog know that there is Rhyme and reason to WhadaweThink: A.We raise a compelling issue that may be topical, trending, in the news, the talk of the town (to borrow from The New Yorker), or actually we often have an enduring and eternal principle that perhaps Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle would be discussing. B. provide a few examples and illustrations C. Give a personal opinion or actual experience D. Then finally ask what you think, the readers, and welcome debate and discussion.
So to conclude this essay, I want to say that I am personally being forced to jump through hoops to land a low paying part – time job, i.e. “I would hire you on the spot, but you must apply online and wait, etc. What is that all about? Because of today’s bureaucracy, it’s harder to get a blue collar job with a big company than it’s to work for a smaller company – even if it’s an executive position. So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think? I talked about what can happen to an entire country when bureaucracy is in full swing but what about on a smaller more personal level when one is just looking for a job or even registering to vote (Photo Id’s, and well that’s another blog) What is your story? Are you frustrated with bureaucracy ?

The Aurora, CO gunman, James Holmes, was just formally charged with 12 counts of first-degree murder and a plethora of other charges (there were 58 people injured in the shooting as well). Everyone from, the victim’s family members, relatives, friends, the local community (the shooting occurred 20 miles from Columbine) is grieving and the whole country is utterly in a state of shock and disbelief and is raising questions. What happened exactly? More importantly, why? How can a man with no previous criminal record and a promising future ahead of him commit such an unspeakably heinous crime?
Well, eventually all the details will come out; a countless number of studies will be conducted and perhaps we’ll learn that gene #17 mutated which caused him to lose touch with reality and go berserk.  On the other hand, maybe he was high on painkillers or conversely he FORGOT to take his medication.
What I’m going to blog about today is one thing what WE, as a society and a civilized country can do to, if not eliminate (which is impossible, there will always be crazy madmen walking around) but rather minimize and curtail the number of these type and other homicides with guns. The answer is Hollywood and Madison Avenue can portray people who carry guns to be pathetic, lame, ugly, and UNCOOL individuals. It’s the same strategy we are using with cigarette smoking – it’s not cool to smoke today and hopefully someday it will be viewed as despicable to be a gun owner.
Take a look at Bruce Willis, The Rock, Stallone, The terminator, ad infinitum toting these incredibly cool-looking weapons. And, just look at the power a gun gives you, in the movies you’re an unstoppable machine and all your problems can be resolved by moving your index finger. If I were in charge, my first marketing campaign would be something like ‘Only weaklings need guns – real men are martial arts practitioners who work hard to become a man.’ Or’ wow you’re a real tough guy, you can move your index finger back and forth.’ I know this sounds a little silly, glib, and facile but I am convinced that huge marketing strategies like this will SAVE lives. Kids and immature men are monumentally impressionable, and for a guy, being cool, strong, powerful, self-sufficient, and independent is everything.
This is just one strategy for combatting gun crime; obviously, we need to implement strict gun laws as well. So WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think?  This is something we can do – STOP making the guy toting the gun look cool. No longer is the guy with the Marlboro hanging from his mouth macho, or cool, but rather he’s a person who has a disgusting, filthy habit that girls hate and in the end will kill him. So maybe 10 years from now we can say ‘ Look at that pathetic weakling who needs a gun to protect himself, a real man uses his brain and bare hands if necessary to get out of a tough situation.”

I just wanted to point out the fact that James Holmes, 24, the joker obtained all of his guns legally which essentially firmed up my contention that though a man or woman can be SANE when purchasing a firearm, that same individual can lose it and become INSANE. Just take a look at the attached photos and one can see the before and after photographs; for God’s sake, the gunman earned a Ph.D in neuroscience.

12 people and 58 injured at the hands of one scrawny , little man, all made tenable by the simple fact that he had a license to own guns. How many more killings, shooting sprees, mass murdering incidents, must we endure before we wake up and put forth legislation that will put an end to this horror. I am not suggesting that I have all the answers, but certainly something must be done – and done NOW !

I have been reading a lot of right wing rhetoric on Facebook and the other social networking sites suggesting that in essence, the solution is to arm to the teeth every man, woman, child of this once great nation; this is ARCHIE BUNKER LOGIC (People think I’m kidding, but I’m serious, there is a certain episode of  ’All in the Family’  in which Archie proudly declares that arming our citizenry is the logical thing to do to resolve this very complicated and complex gun issue epidemic.)

Though in the Colorado incident, the gunman fired away with shotguns and assault rifles (just like in Columbine), I think the first step is to go after handguns and anything that some madman can conceal. Next or at the same time get rid of ALL assault weapons – this is a no-brainer. This leaves shotguns for deer hunting and ’22 ‘s  for bird hunting (or for protection if one is elderly or perhaps a single woman) which I don’t have a problem with but I think there must be a FEDERAL law passed which mandates that a thourough psychiatric examination must be carried out on an annual basis; much sterner and comprehensive than what the individual states now have on the books.

There is so much to write about and there is a plethora of compelling issues that this utterly grim, grizzly, and gruesome incident forces us to look at such as - should filmmakers be more responsible about the violence that is portrayed. I am totally against censorship but study after study conclusively show that young people, children, very immature adults and crazy people are affected by gratuitous violence. This is another blog.

At this point, I’m going to open it up and ask WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think ? Mayor Bloomberg of New York suggested that the two candidates running for president ought to make the issue of gun control a staple of their campaign strategy. This is a great idea ! What are you going to do about the gun problem we have in this country, Governor Romney, if you get elected as president this November? How about you – President Obama: how are you going to 1. Fix the economy and 2. prevent another horrifying incident like this from happening again ?

Oh, incidentally, this recent shooting occurred just 20 miles from Columbine High School. Scary ain’t it ?  

How is it possible that at times, ordinary, decent, law – abiding citizens can uncharacteristically inflict the most unthinkable and unconscionable acts upon one another?  Per the Milgram Study, the notable psychological study conducted by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1961, (3 months after the start of the trial of the notorious Nazi war criminal – Adolph Eichmann) all that is needed is a little prompting by a perceived authority figure. YEP – that’s it. The millions upon millions of average German citizens carried out the most heinous acts upon an imaginary enemy (the Jewish populace) and the results from the Milgram experiment concluded that: 1. ordinary Americans are also capable of doing the same thing and 2. It is possible that it can happen again.
In a nutshell ordinary people from Connecticut administered (perceived) life-threatening electrical shocks to other regular folks for not answering a question correctly. Though the subject doling out the pain was reluctant and felt uncomfortable, he or she continued nonetheless because the mediator or authority figure (person running the experiment) simply issued a series of commands such as: Please continue, the experiment requires that you continue, it is absolutely essential that you continue, or you have no other choice you must go on. And so MOST of the subjects continued -  COULD YOU BELIEVE THAT ?  (For more details just go onto Wikipedia or Google the Milgram Experiment).
I vaguely remember hearing about this study back in college, but I recently came across an article which prompted me to look further into this (I suggest everyone look at all the details – it’s unreal). After finishing my research, I asked myself – what would I do ? I really believe that I would walk out and not inflict pain upon an innocent person just because someone in authority told me to. Keep in mind, this was not Nazi Germany where if you said no, you may very well end up in a concentration camp. No, this was just a laboratory – all the person had to do was refuse and walk out.
So Whadayathink ? What do you think? How do you think you would react if you were a subject taking part in an experiment like Milgram ?

What is the underlying difference between conservatives and liberals? The truth of the matter is your average republican has a substantially stronger aversion to ambiguity than democrats do. Nobody likes irresolution and uncertainty but a plethora of controlled studies (I will cite the specific studies if necessary but for our purposes…just google psychology of political affiliation, etc.) have overwhelmingly shown that liberal-minded democrats have a much greater degree of tolerance for contradictory interpretations of complex issues than republicans do – period.
One need only listen to AM radio or watch FOX News to see how easily Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Bill O’Reilly can resolve the most tortuously labyrinthine political problems with such utterly facile, black and white, crude, and non-subtle sweeping generalizations. These conservative media are laughable and I find it hard to believe that any informed citizen can take these folks seriously.
It certainly would be nice if there were such pat solutions for such vexing issues as healthcare, gun control, the economy, foreign affairs, abortion, immigration, role of government etc.  but there simply isn’t. Every important issue is prodigiously difficult and complex and no matter what legislation for any given predicament is presented, the bottom line is a whole lot of people are going to get hurt (usually around 50%).
What I would suggest everyone do is conduct a little semi-controlled study yourself and do what I did – just think of all of your friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and even family members and ask yourself: who has a greater tolerance in dealing with huge, messy complicated problems, your liberal friends or conservative ones ? Don’t you think your republican co-workers are quicker to voice their unwavering opinions and thoughts on any given issue? Finally, ask yourself, why do they always have to SHOUT and YELL?
So what do you think ? WhaDaYaThink ? Oh – about the shouting thing – @ lunchtime starting at 12pm EST, today or tomorrow go and listen to Leonard Lopate on NPR for a little while and then switch the dial and tune into Hannity, Limbaugh or O’Reilly and let me know your thoughts.

I have been a student of eastern philosophy for more than three decades and I am delighted to see that the practice of Mindfulness is very much in vogue today. One doesn’t even have to concern oneself with the historicity of Mindfulness nor even be remotely interested in Buddhism out of which this very simple, though at the same time very difficult and yet prodigiously effective practice sprung. As a matter of fact many psychiatrists and psychologists have recommended Mindfulness to their patients as a way of reducing stress, anxiety, and dealing with depression.
Many people have stated that Mindfulness has dramatically changed his or her life for the better; whether it is practiced by someone who suffers from some anxiety and mild depression to very serious psychiatric afflictions such as paranoid schizophrenia. (Last week The New York Times profiled a man who was diagnosed with having schizophrenia but was able to cope and function as a productive solid citizen, he is currently employed full time as a computer programmer, with the aid of medication and the daily practice of mindfulness.)
So what is Mindfulness? Is this something for you? Can you incorporate this sort of practice into your life and busy schedule? The answer to all three of these questions is a resounding yes. Mindfulness in a sense is a form of mediation, one doesn’t have to set aside a half – hour or more and sit in the lotus position counting one’s breath. Mindfulness is actually a way of life and a new way of looking at the world. Ideally, a person ought to be mindful every waking moment. The best definition for mindfulness is simply (it’s actually very hard) bringing your attention to the present and paying careful attention purposely and in a particular way to the present moment; the particular way is to be nonjudgmental and to except what is true and real without any pre-conceived notions or delusions. This is the reason a Zen Buddhist very often refers to this “state of mind” as Beginner’s mind or experiencing life as if for the very first time. One can be an eighty-year-old man with a lifetime of experiences and memories and still live almost child-like in terms of being curious, open, and accepting what you perceive to be the absolute truth – life is exactly what it appears to be, nothing less and nothing more.
Although Buddhism has been around for 2500 years, the concept and idea of cherry – picking, so to speak , the utilitarian down-to-earth nuts and bolts aspects of how to live a good life without adhering to and embracing the philosophy and religion of Buddhism, was put forth by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn who founded the Minfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts to treat the chronically ill. This was a hugely successful and clearly effective way of maintaining good health physically, emotionally, psychologically, and even spiritually combining western medicine and the eternal truths from the East (from the East but they’re truths that are eternal and universal) about the human condition.
So tomorrow morning when you have your morning cup of coffee, experiment with mindfulness. Drinking coffee or tea is a good way of beginning your Mindfulness training. There are actually scores of books written about Zen and not only drinking tea but also the preparation involved which is sort of a ritual for many Easterners. (Now Westerners too, thanks to the proliferation of Zen and Mindfulness). Say to yourself, “This is the beginning of a new and wonderful day; this particular day has never happened before and never will happen again. Be mindful of this and be grateful. Smell the aroma of the coffee before taking your first sip, feel the porcelain touch your lips, take note of the weight of the cup, let all of your senses open up, and come to life. Nothing else matters at this particular moment and time but you and your cup of coffee. Be at peace and be totally present. If a thought, worry or concern crops up do not dismiss it, simply acknowledge it, accept it and gently bring yourself back to drinking your coffee or tea. Thoughts, feelings, awareness of your surroundings is all normal, the key is to be in the present and greet each feeling and sensation with curiosity, openness, total acceptance and feel the connection and relationship you have with your cup of coffee and ultimately with everything that exists and is in the universes. Yes, life is good and for these few minutes, there is nothing but this. You’re as close to the truth as the Dali Lama is as he meditates to greet the morning. “
So WhaDaYaThink ? What Do You Think ? This seems like a very simple exercise in Mindfulness but I can assure you, invariably a multitude of unwanted thoughts will permeate you being – just let them come and go, eventually you will be the master of your thoughts and you will be more peaceful, more at rest and yet more alive than ever. Peace on Earth.

I earnestly believe that there is not a single individual (sane, neurotic or insane) who could not benefit from regularly seeking treatment from a professional psychotherapist. Even the President of the United States, at whom we often look as perhaps the sanest, calmest, coolest and most collected person one can ever set eyes upon, can certainly profit from psychotherapy (especially the president  - the guy with the most important job in the world and all the stress that comes with it); after all therapy is merely sitting down (or lying down) and openly and honestly discussing one’s problems, doubts and troubles with an intelligent and understanding trained professional whose greatest strength is perhaps listening (a very rare and undervalued attribute). But, most of all talk therapy along with medication is a necessity for people who suffer from severe depression or clinical depression. 

Sadly, I read yesterday on the front page of the NY Times, that very few of the 48,000 psychiatrists in this country (U.S.) offer talk therapy and instead simply take out their prescription pads and write out scripts for an SSRI (a Paxil-like anti-depressant now universally prescribed for depression) and perhaps a benzodiazepine (Xanax or Klonopin) for that dreadful anxiety. Why is this the case? And why no more psychotherapy? The answer to this question and the reason for most problems we Americans and all people face is simply – MONEY!  

Allow me to elaborate; insurance companies don’t consider clinical depression to be a disease, though the American Medical Association does, and therefore won’t cover the expense. And as a result of this egregious and unjust system we now have millions of clinically depressed people walking around contemplating suicide and even perhaps harming others. (As William Styron pointed out in is amazingly short yet awe-inspiringly accurate book – ‘Darkness Visible – A Memoir of Madness’, clinical depression at its extreme is, make no mistake – madness.) Furthermore we now have an epidemic of depressed people who in addition to battling their depression are also addicted to Psycho-pharmaceuticals.  

Here is another Catch-22 – if you’re severely depressed, you can’t work, and you have no money and no insurance anyway. Those who are lucky enough to work through their dire situation will more than likely see a psychiatrist because only a psychiatrist (who is a Medical Dr.) can write out a prescription and honestly with real clinical depression, medication is more important but sadly not enough. And again we have the money situation – it’s cheaper to spend 15 minutes with a Psychiatrist every 3 months for $150 than see a psychologist at $75 for 45 minutes but in order for talk therapy to work, a patient should be seen at least once a week. So you see – talk ends up being more expensive than the pills. 

Now, as for the rich – of course there are no problems – Woody Allen and Howard Stern can have a psychiatrist/psychologist and pay anywhere from upwards of $600 – $2,000 an hour (another blog – one of the plethora of privileges for the rich). Also, trust me on this one; there are a lot of awful, inept psychologists who are “nuttier” than anyone out there. Bottom line is all the good talk therapists are taken (another blog). 

My Opt. –ed. Blog is an open forum and I am brutally honest, and furthermore I consider the people who comment, read, and support my (our) Opt. ed. blog as family. So I will reveal to my readers that I have suffered from clinical depression, addiction and a panic disorder (I’ve had it since high school). Fortunately, I have had help from amazing doctors and loved ones and haven’t suffered from the ‘Black Dog’ (Winston Churchill coined this –a great man who perhaps saved western civilization as we know it – see there is nothing to be ashamed of ! Life is hard – people get sick) in more than 5 years and though I do get anxiety attacks from time to time, I am a very happy man and consider myself cured.   

So now it’s your turn WHADAWETHINK ? Our country is in debt as it is and our health care system is just a mess. Does anyone have a panacea? Any solutions out there? Have you ever suffered from depression ? Please share ! 

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