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Woman Found Holding Her Eyeball Outside of Church

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Authorities say a woman was found holding her eyeball outside a South Carolina church.

Anderson County Sheriff Chad McBride tells news outlets that it took two or three deputies and two emergency medical workers to subdue the woman to start rendering aid.

A retired minister who helped the woman, Rev. Terry Mitchell, says it appeared she had intentionally hurt herself on nearby railroad tracks. He said the woman looked young, and struggled against people who were trying to help her. (Read more from “Woman Found Holding Her Eyeball Outside of Church” HERE)

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The GOP House Just Approved Tracking Devices for People with Disabilities

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The House passed a bill Thursday morning that empowers the Department of Justice to establish a system whereby people with autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and other mental impairments are equipped with tracking devices, in case they wander off. H.R. 4919 passed 346 to 66 under a suspension of the rules, meaning that no amendments to the bill could be offered.

Better known as Kevin and Avonte’s Law — named after two children with autism who wandered off and drowned — the bill allows for the DOJ to award $2 million in grants to help states in “designing, establishing, and operating locative tracking technology programs” for people with mental disabilities.

“This legislation will assist communities in receiving valuable education on how to prevent individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and children with autism from wandering, and to respond quickly and appropriately in cases in which they do,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. (D, 64%), per the New York Daily News.

The bill has incited passion from autism and Alzheimer’s advocacy groups, as well as those who are concerned about civil liberties and government overreach. Last week, the bill was scheduled for a House Judiciary Committee markup, but was postponed.

As Conservative Review reported at the time, “Multiple sources on the Hill with knowledge of the situation said that the hearing was cancelled after several GOP committee members voiced concerns about how the language dealt with privacy and civil liberty issues.”

After the Judiciary Committee markup was cancelled, the language of Kevin and Avonte’s Law was changed, so that the tracking devices overseen by the DOJ were less permanent and invasive than the ones originally proposed.

The language change “is still not good enough,” Robert Romano, senior editor at Americans for Limited Government, stated in a press release Wednesday: “There shouldn’t be any bill, because there shouldn’t be a program no matter how well-intentioned overseen by the Attorney General electronically tracking people in this manner.”

Nevertheless, the bill was brought up for a quick vote on Thursday, the last day of the House’s lame-duck legislative session before the new year.

A House source told Conservative Review that, as of last week, an informal whip count of the Judiciary Committee found that a majority of members on the committee were opposed to the bill. It is extremely uncommon for a bill to bypass a committee markup in this way and be brought to the floor under suspension of the rules, the source stated. The bill may be brought up in the Senate for a vote in the next 24 hours, where it is expected to pass with ease and head to President Obama’s desk for signature.

Despite its swift passage through the House, concerns abound for this bill. Government-run tracking devices “would violate the Fourth Amendment as an unreasonable search. And it would violate the Fifth Amendment’s deprivation of liberty without due process,” says Romano, of the “human tracking device bill.”

“Autism,” “Alzheimer’s disease,” and “other developmental disabilities” are not defined in the bill, which prompts extra concern for individuals who may lie somewhere on the autism spectrum but are capable of making decisions for themselves.

Further, there are no assurances that a future attorney general couldn’t mandate the sharing of data obtained by DOJ devices between federal agencies and law enforcement, therefore opening the window for unprecedented domestic surveillance.

Rep. Goodlatte made assurances that the program was voluntary and that no data would be collected. But the government simply does not have a good track record and history, to say the least, when it comes to privacy matters.

For parents or caretakers concerned about the safety and location of their loved ones with developmental disabilities, there are non-invasive, private ways to track the whereabouts under medical supervision — when necessary.

The slippery slope of Kevin and Avonte’s Law is frightening, as there is simply no need for the federal government to get involved. (For more from the author of “The GOP House Just Approved Tracking Devices for People with Disabilities” please click HERE)

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ObamaCare May Make Finding Treatment Harder for Mentally Ill

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

To the outside world, it came across as mood swings and anger. But Regina Cullison would later be told by psychiatrists she struggled with depression and anxiety—and that she needed help. And that is where her trouble began and ended.

According to her mother, there were few psychiatrists in the county who took private insurance. When Ms. Cullison lost her job as a dentist’s assistant, and with it her insurance, she switched to a nonprofit facility. Doctors came and went, and none stayed long enough to establish a regular pattern of treatment.

After two years, Ms. Cullison abandoned her search for professional help and tried marijuana. Her mother, Carolyn Cullison, who is the director of a mental-health peer support group, said that helped push away the demons. But in May, while living together, the pair argued. Ms. Cullison apologized, retreated to a bedroom and shot herself. She was 26.

As hard as it might be to acknowledge having a mental-health illness, finding professional help can be even harder.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sandy Hook Spurs States’ Mental Health Push

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Photo Credit: APIn the anguished days following the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, President Barack Obama called for a renewed national focus on mental health.

His plea went nowhere in Congress. But states from South Carolina to Oregon have taken up the challenge.

At least 37 states have increased spending on mental health in the year since Adam Lanza shot dead 20 children, six school employees and his mother in Newtown, Conn. It’s not just about money, either. States are experimenting with new — and sometimes controversial — ways to raise awareness about psychological distress, to make treatment more accessible for children and adults and to keep firearms away from those struggling with mental illness.

Nevada, for instance, is launching a pilot program to screen children in secondary schools for mental health concerns. Texas not only boosted mental health funding by a record $300 million over two years, but required public school teachers and students to be trained in recognizing mental illness. Utah will require school districts to offer parents an annual seminar on mental health, including depression and suicide. Colorado established a 24-hour crisis hotline.

The new initiatives don’t make up for the more than $4 billion cut from state mental health budgets during the lean years of the recent recession. And they weren’t universal: A half-dozen states cut funding on mental health this year, including Louisiana, Maine and North Carolina.

Read more from this story HERE.

CDC Says 50% of Americans Will be Mentally Ill; No Wonder Gun Control Advocates Want Mental Illness Ban

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

CDC: ‘Nearly 50% of U.S. Adults Will Develop at Least One Mental Illness’

By Taylor Knopf. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention says that at any given moment about a quarter of American adults are mentally ill and that over the course of their lifetimes about half of all Americans will develop at least one mental illness.

A CDC mental-health fact sheet–Mental Illness Surveillance Among U.S. Adults–says that “published studies report that about 25% of all U.S. adults have a mental illness and that nearly 50% of U.S. adults will develop at least one mental illness during their lifetime.”

The fact sheet also notes that the authors of a 2011 CDC mental health surveillance report pointed out that “currently, no surveillance efforts at the national or state level are directed toward documenting anxiety disorders.” The authors thus call for “initiating national-level anxiety disorder surveillance activities.”

Mental illness, says the CDC, “refers collectively to all diagnosable mental disorders” and that “the most common mental illnesses in adults are anxiety and mood disorders.” Mental illnesses effects “include sustained abnormal alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior associated with distress and impaired functioning.”

In addition, says the agency, “mental illness is associated with increased occurrence of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, asthma, epilepsy, and cancer.” Read more from this story HERE.

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The Brilliant Gun Confiscation Trap

By Eddie Zingone. It is so simple and will be so effective it is simply nuts! I am referring to the trap that is being carefully laid by liberals to confiscate the guns of a significant number of law abiding Americans. It would be crazy to try and push their full agenda at once, so they do what liberals are much better at doing than conservatives: they will take it one step at a time and slowly tighten the noose.

Here’s how it will work: it seems to be common sense that no one wants the mentally ill to have access to firearms. After all, the shooters from Columbine to Aurora to Sandy Hook were mentally ill (at least judging by the fruit of their actions). Most of us would probably agree that no one wants individuals like that to be armed. Thus lies the rationale to clamp down on background checks and create a national ‘database’ to filter these individuals out. Read more from this story HERE.

Koran: Beat Women to Alleviate Mental Disorders

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Photo Credit: AP

A Kuwaiti cleric and president of Iqra TV has said that Islam allows for wife beatings if she suffers from a “mental disorder,” such as masochism.

“We all know that some men suffer from a mental disorder known as sadism, and that some woman suffer from a mental disorder known as masochism,” Jassem Al-Mutawa said to guest host Muhammad Al-Hajj, a professor from the University of Jordan.

“What is the cure for such disorders? Beatings,” he continued. “Such a woman must be dealt with harshly.

“A psychiatrist friend of mine once told me that sometimes people come to him with marital problems, in which the woman suffers from that disease. He advises the husband to beat her in a certain way, and the problem is solved,” he said. “The Koran deals with such problems

Read more from this story HERE.

Biden: Brain Surgeon Told Him He Had Less Than 50% Chance of ‘Being Completely Normal’

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Photo Credit: AP

Speaking at the White House National Conference on Mental Health on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden told a sometimes serious and sometimes jocular story about the two brain surgeries he needed in 1988 to deal with cranial aneurysms.

Biden told the White House audience “they take a saw and they cut your head off” and “they literally had to take the top of my head off.” He also recounted that as he was being wheeled into surgery he asked the neurosurgeon, “What are my chances of getting off this table completely normal?” The surgeon told Biden he had a better chance of living—and that that chance was in the 35 to 50 percent range.

“The only totally un-chartered portion of the universe is the brain,” Biden said in his White House speech. “You know, as we used to say in the Senate, excuse the point of personal privilege here: I had two cranial aneurysms, and they literally had to take the top of my head off. I mean, they take a saw and they cut your head off, and go in to find the artery that is–one was leaking, the other that hadn’t, before it burst.

Read more from this story HERE.

Answer to Gun Violence is Gun Control? Not Hardly.

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Dylan Quick, the 20-year-old accused of going on a stabbing rampage yesterday—injuring 14 people at Lone Star Community College in Texas—should settle the gun control/violence debate, once and for all.

That won’t happen, of course, because people who want to restrict personal freedoms will still turn a blind eye to the obvious: After years of America destroying its mental health care system, leaving it in ruins, as a national disgrace, cases of undiagnosed and untreated mental illness are to blame for the horrific episodes of violence that have made headlines and wrongly fueled gun control legislation.

This is true for Jared Lee Loughner, who shot Congressman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona. It is true for James Holmes, the man accused of murdering 12 people in a Colorado movie theatre. It is true for Adam Lanza, the man who murdered 20 children and 6 adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Dylan Quick reportedly fantasized about killing people by stabbing them since he was a child. He reportedly walked around wearing gloves, even in warm weather, clutching stuffed animals.

I believe it will turn out that Mr. Quick, like the rest of the recent perpetrators of mass violence, fell through the colossal cracks in our decrepit system. A system of antiquated psychiatric facilities, understaffed community mental health centers and insurance companies hell-bent on restricting mental health care resources in a disproportionate fashion, compared to those targeted at other illnesses, and one which is a shameful show of prejudice towards the afflicted.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mental Illness Plagued Gosnell Employees Who ‘Snipped’ Babies Necks

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

Lynda Williams told a jury Tuesday that her boss, Kermit Gosnell, was aware she suffered from bi-polar disorder and depression when he hired her to work at his “House of Horrors” abortion clinic in West Philadelphia assisting with late-term abortions. In fact, she was being treated by Gosnell for the mental health illnesses.

Another clinic worker, Elizabeth Hampton, previously testified she suffered from depression and anxiety in addition to alcohol abuse, and that she once had a “nervous breakdown.” Yet another former Gosnell employee to testify, Sherry West, also admitted to being treated for mental health disorders.

Williams told the court that the practice of snipping the spinal cords of newborns through the back of the neck was “routine” at Gosnell’s clinic as a means of ensuring “fetal demise.”

“The problem with this notion is that newborn babies are not considered ‘fetuses’ anymore and killing them classified as murder. Gosnell never bothered to tell that to his undereducated and emotionally troubled clinic workers,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.

Williams has already pled guilty to two counts of third degree murder for killing babies via Gosnell’s neck-snipping procedure and to conspiracy. By testifying against her former boss, she hopes to avoid the death penalty or life in prison. She will be sentenced after Gosnell’s trial concludes and face the possibility of 100 years in prison.

Read more from this story HERE.

To Prevent Mass Murders, Lock up Crazy People

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Obama has been draping himself in families of the children murdered in Newtown.

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir suggested that Republican senators need to have a member of their families killed for them to support the Democrats’ gun proposals.

In a bizarre version of “A Christmas Carol,” CNN’s Carol Costello fantasized about “a mother who lost her child,” showing up and knocking on Sen. Rand Paul’s door, saying, “Please don’t do this!”

The victims of gun violence are the left’s latest “human shields” — a term coined by me in Godless: The Church of Liberalism — for their idiotic ideas. At least it’s not the godawful Jersey Girls this time.

The one clear thread that unites all the mass murders currently being exploited by the Democrats is that they were committed by visibly crazy people who were unaccountably not institutionalized. But Democrats refuse to do anything about crazy people. Apparently, the views of families with relatives murdered by severely disturbed individuals are no longer relevant when it comes to institutionalizing the mentally ill.

Read more from this story HERE.