i really need to stop reading the washington post in the morning. every time i do, it seems i find reason to blog.

take this report being released today by the ondcp, finding that “teenagers who smoke marijuana put themselves at risk for future mental illness and higher rates of depression.” sounds scary! but the report also states that “too often teens do not seek treatment for their depression, choosing instead to seek relief by smoking marijuana. they do not realize that pot can make their problems worse and can set them up for serious health consequences.”

that’s right. the white house report says that depressed teenagers who don’t get treated have a higher likelihood of growing up to be depressed adults. i call that one for the file marked “duh.”

or take this gem:

The report also found that teenagers who smoke marijuana at least once a month are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than non-users. It said that even though the percentage of teens who are depressed is equal to the percentage of adults who say they are depressed, teenagers are more likely to seek solace in marijuana or other illicit drugs.

add that to the previous information and what you have is the following: teens who aren’t treated for depression are likely to have suicidal thoughts. the causality of marijuana just isn’t borne out in the analysis presented in the washington post article. by their logic, i can safely assert that home schooling leads to smoking pot from corpses’ heads. (and thanks, james, for that link. i was eating lunch.)

*sigh*

###

in other news, also reported by the wapo, it seems the u.s. commission of fine arts has its nose out of joint because the working model of the new mlk jr. memorial features “a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character.”

heaven forbid a man who led marches, who packed the mall, and who - yes - confronted the racism in america be depicted in full frontal suitedness, arms crossed.

but what the commission is really bent about, apparently, is the artistic style of the proposed piece: the commission sec’y, thomas leubke, wrote that “the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries.”

call me crazy, but i don’t think the sculptures to which he’s referring (saddam, anyone?) were removed out of aesthetic concerns. and in demanding that the dr. king sculpture be altered to evoke the “works of sculptors such as michelangelo and rodin,” leubke is completely missing the appropriateness of depicting dr. king in the social realist style: art that “belongs to the people and to the land and not to the exclusionary cliques of art world elites.” it almost seems that despite being sec’y of the fine arts commission, leubke is unfamiliar with the wpa.

ed dwight, a denver sculptor, has said the sculpture doesn’t look like dr. king. now that seems to be a more valid criticism.

dc is so bent on prohibiting its residents from owning handguns¹ it took the issue all the way to the supreme court.

now the city is going to arm its patrol officers with assault rifles.

while it’s arguably safer to have handguns in the hands of police officers than criminals, i don’t think that necessarily extends to the average law-abiding citizen. i’m left with the thought that this move must be in reaction to a concern (i’d say likelihood, but i haven’t read the transcript of the oral arguments or paid much attention to legal commentators’ opinions on the subject) that the lower court ruling on the dc gun control ordinance will be upheld by the supreme court or remanded to the lower court for a narrower review. “hey! let’s throw MORE high-powered guns at the problem!”

_____________________
¹ D.C. CODE §§ 7-2502.02(a)(4), 22-4504(a), AND 7-2507.02

…is it more dangerous than smoking asbestos?

all that yakking will kill you.¹

(still no word on the impact of bluetooth earpieces.)

__________
¹ i have yet to read the study referenced in this article. to be honest, i’m more interested in the recent IP opinion on superman² out of the u.s. district court, central district of california.

² i’d link to it³ but i’m still waiting for cut-and-paste capability on my iphone. apple wankers.

³ there it is. long URL, too.

my inner epidemiologist is salivating.

(don’t look at me like that. you mean we don’t all have an inner epidemiologist?)

and in the nick of time, too - great flying spaghetti monster, there’s a terminator television series starring summer glau!

too bad it’s on fox.

i’m sure there will be more exclamations of surprise from me (and responses of, “duh, laloca” from my cadre of four devoted readers) as i re-enter the world of the living.

oh, and a word to the wise (or those who would be wiser than me): working 155 hours in 13 days, trying to keep on top of laundry, remembering to eat, finding time to sleep, trying to notice an ongoing home remodel (kitchen - done; laundry room - done; bathroom… er….) is not the way to live one’s life. not even if you’re limiting it to 13 days.

you’re liable to end up in the ER with nervous exhaustion. no kidding. i’ll tell you all about it one day.

the more interesting story is that you get there because your husband, who has been running himself ragged trying to take care of you and not just noticing the remodel, but actually coordinating it, as well as working 13 hour days himself and trying to get a book finished, play with the dog, exercise the ferret, and fill in for a perpetually absent boss… you get there because he spikes a 103 degree fever, has rigors, chills, and a host of other symptoms that make you think he’s got meningitis.

and when you take him to the ER… lo and behold, he’s got meningitis (viral, not bacterial). yay differential diagnosis skills of the MPH. (as opposed to the differential diagnosis skills of the JD, who says to her friend, “you know, your wife is about to file divorce papers on your ass.”)

anyhoo. that’s been doings since the new year. i’m tired and going to sleep.

we care about the mental health of our returning soldiers… unless we don’t.

astonishing institutionalized disconnect in the army strikes again; psychiatrists finally tell prosecuting attorneys they’re full of shit. who knows if it will make a difference.

Military psychiatrists at Walter Reed who examined Whiteside after she recovered from her self-inflicted gunshot wound diagnosed her with a severe mental disorder, possibly triggered by the stresses of a war zone. But Whiteside’s superiors considered her mental illness “an excuse” for criminal conduct, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

At the hearing, Wolfe, who had already warned Whiteside’s lawyer of the risk of using a “psychobabble” defense, pressed a senior psychiatrist at Walter Reed to justify his diagnosis.

“I’m not here to play legal games,” Col. George Brandt responded angrily, according to a recording of the hearing. “I am here out of the genuine concern for a human being that’s breaking and that is broken. She has a severe and significant illness. Let’s treat her as a human being, for Christ’s sake!”

it gets better. general schoomaker, now the surgeon general of the army, was of the medical opinion that

“This officer has a demonstrably severe depression which manifested itself . . . as a psychotic, self-destructive episode…

and yet, military bureaucrats in the warrior transition brigade (mission: “to facilitate warriors’ transition and healing process“) maintained that

“Although the sanity board determined that at the time of the misconduct she had a severe mental disease or defect, she knowingly assaulted and threatened others and injured herself.”

and

her “defense that she suffers from a mental disease excusing her actions is just that . . . an excuse; an excuse to distract from choices and decisions made by 1LT Whiteside.”

read the whole article. it’s pretty sick.

so, we got dragged into an occupation in iraq by the former secdef, but did you know that he’s responsible for getting a neurotoxin into your diet soda?

yup, that’s right. neurotoxin. they call it “NutraSweet.” and according to one website,

Since its discovery in 1965, controversy has raged over the health risks associated with the sugar substitute. From laboratory testing of the chemical on rats, researchers have discovered that the drug induces brain tumors. On Sept 30, 1980 the Board of Inquiry of the FDA concurred and denied the petition for approval.

In 1981, the newly appointed FDA Commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes, ignored the negative ruling and approved aspartame for dry goods. As recorded in the Congressional Record of 1985, then CEO of Searle Laboratories Donald Rumsfeld said that he would “call in his markers” to get aspartame approved. Rumsfeld was on President Reagan’s transition team and a day after taking office appointed Hayes. No FDA Commissioner in the previous sixteen years had allowed aspartame on the market.

now, i’ll admit the rummy link was what got me interested in blogging on the issue in the first place. but i wanted more than a single, potentially crackpot website to back me up, particularly on the health (rather than political) issues. so i went to pubmed and searched first on aspartame and neurotoxin, then on aspartame alone. i noticed two things:

1. most studies listed in pubmed did not seem to find any negative effects correlated with consumption of the chemical; and

2. those that did find negative effects did not have abstracts available.

fishy, i thought. i kept searching pubmed, and came across a promising-sounding back-and-forth in the BMJ enticingly titled “aspartame and its effects on health.” even more enticing because there was no abstract available.

luckily, the good folk over at the BMJ often make available full-text articles at no cost. so i headed over there, and found the article (and comments) in question.

the most fascinating (to me) factoid this quick-and-dirty online research of mine found? that an online review of peer-reviewed literature on the safety of aspartame found

that, although 100% of industry funded (either whole or in part) studies conclude that aspartame is safe, 92% of independently funded studies have found that aspartame has the potential for adverse effects.

gee. not unlike the effects of tobacco industry funding on the outcome of studies…

The Army confirmed in a Thursday report that 99 soldiers committed suicide last year, the highest number in a single year since 1991.

The figures also showed that of the 44 soldiers who have so far committed suicide in 2007, 17 were in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Although occupational issues may have contributed to some of the suicides, the report said soldiers also suffered from failed relationships and legal and financial trouble. The overall suicide rate for soldiers in 2006 was 17.3 per 100,000 soldiers, up from 12.8 per 100,000 in 2005 and 10.8 per 100,000 in 2004.

and it just gets worse. full story at govexec.com

hat tip: kickgirl

i couldn’t take it anymore, so i dragged g off to my soul-restoring potomac hideaway. and took my camera. the views were beautiful, but rock textures were the order of the day.

then i found a new wp plugin and played with photoshop for awhile. relaxing.

gates promises to fix military mental health system.

troops’ one-month breaks blocked.

ah-huh.