OK, no sense being relentlessly negative all day. Here are a couple of pieces of good news, as well as something quite absurd.
First of all, a Somali pirate attack on a Maersk container ship was repelled by armed guards. The only downside, IMO, is that they didn't have a few "ma deuces" to tear the pirate boats to shreds before they could even come within range of the pirates' AKs and RPGs. Well done, though.
Second, a Delaware store clerk has shot and killed at least one armed robber--and possibly wounded others--who apparently had no clue that liquor store clerks are often armed for this very reason. One thug off the streets, and no legal or incarceration bills for the taxpayer to pay.
Now something absurd; drug companies are apparently trying to develop drugs for women with "low sex drive" which apparently work by reducing inhibitions. Never mind the fact, of course, that alcohol, flowers, chocolate, backrubs, and other "inhibition reducers" are readily available without a prescription. Just consider the fact that SSRIs (this drug is one) aren't removed from the blood within hours like alcohol is, and the further reality that it's not exactly safe for a woman to be walking around with permanently reduced inhibitions. Rather, they're trying to develop a drug to cause one of the classic symptoms of manic depression.
Reason 110
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Crystal K, charter MOB member, has a scathing review of life in Tim Walz’s
Minnesota. Read the whole thing . There are too many pullquotes to run them
all:...
4 hours ago
4 comments:
Three cheers for good news! Because it sure is easy to get bogged down in the swirling insanity and ubiquitous foolishness.
Hmmmm...don't think I agree on the SSRI thing. Isn't that like saying that blood pressure medicine is bad because extremely low blood pressure is bad? If someone's inhibitions are drastically too high, and they are lowered to a reasonable point, that is not the same as lowering them to an unsafe point. The symptom of manic depression is inhibitions that are too low, not inhibitions that are lower than they were at some previous time regardless of how high that was. Inhibitions that are lower than they were before are a normal and healthy symptom of being 15 instead of 13. ;-)
I'm not saying I think this drug is a good idea -- I don't know enough about it and I'm pretty suspicious of psychotropics myself. But the argument that lowering something is bad because that thing being TOO low is bad, doesn't follow.
Good comparison, except that high blood pressure (stroke) will kill you, and blood pressure has an objective scale that inhibition levels don't.
The end result is that you're going to get people arranging with doctors (or over the Internet, look at your SPAM email for Viagra ads) to set their inhibition levels as low as the doctors will allow.
Then, when they get "adverse results", they sue because the doctors and drug manufacturers made their inhibition levels "too low".
It's a tort lawyer's dream; a drug with unpredictable effects leading to self-destructive behavior.
That's true enough. I'd just counter with two things, that modify but don't refute your points.
One, blood pressure has objective measurement, but over the years the "right" places to fall on that scale keep being modified. So while it's definitely more concrete than something like "inhibitions," it's not exactly carved in stone, given the limits of human knowledge.
The other is that the effects of high blood pressure will kill you, but the effects of excessive inhibition won't except in pretty complex and bizarre ways (e.g., being unable to ask for help in a potentially lethal crisis.) This is true, but excessive inhibitions can make functioning with anything like a normal life pretty difficult. Not all inhibitions are sexual, after all. Being unable to converse normally or deal with people or have the confidence to take on tasks is pretty crippling, even if it isn't usually ultimately fatal.
But all that said, as I noted above, messing with people chemically is definitely dicey given limited knowledge (and given other things as well.) And your other points are extremely well made.
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