Car Crashes Knocked Off By Suicide

Suicide has overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of injury-related deaths in the U.S.

English: Skull and crossbones (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While public health efforts have curbed the number of car fatalities by 25% over the last decade, a new study shows suicide deaths rose by 15% during the same period.

“Comprehensive and sustained traffic safety measures have apparently substantially diminished the motor vehicle traffic mortality rate, and similar attention and resources are needed to reduce the burden of other injury,” researcher Ian Rockett, PhD, MPH of West Virginia University and colleagues write in theAmerican Journal of Public Health.

“Contrasting with disease mortality, the injury mortality rate trended upward during most of that decade,” write the researchers.

The top five leading causes of injury-related deaths were:

Suicide
Motor vehicle crashes
Poisoning
Falls
Homicide

Researchers say the findings demonstrate that suicide is now a global public health issue.

And I would remind readers that LGBT youth attempt suicide at four times the rate of their peers. Notably because of intolerance, shame and fear perpetuated by ignorant institutions and people- sadly, many of them “Christians”. So here’s a not-so-gentle reminder:

“…but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble,
it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck,
and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” ~Matthew 18.6

Preventing Suicide, Warning Signs (The Trevor Project)
American Foundation For Suicide Prevention- LGBT Initiative
Suicide risk may be lower for gays, lesbians in ‘supportive’ areas (LA Times)

Who Benefits Most From Federal Dollars? Red States

Feb19 by D Gregory Smith

Some of the memes of rural Republicans include: “the government is taxing us to death,” “we’re paying for other people’s programs” “where’s the benefit to the working ~~man~~ person?”. Tea Party protests against government are being held on sidewalks, streets and in parks designed, paid for, cleaned and lit by- you guessed it- the very taxes they’re protesting. Irony is begging for attention here.

Especially- according to the following article- in the red states:

It’s no secret: The federal budget is expanding faster than tax revenues, a trend that’s been fueled by the rapid growth of entitlement programs and exacerbated by the recession. As a recent New York Times article documents, even as fiscally conservative lawmakers complain about deficit spending, their constituents don’t want to give up the Social Security checks, Medicare

benefits, and earned income tax credits that provide a safety net for the struggling middle class…

States receiving the most federal funding per tax dollar paid:

Image via Wikipedia

1. New Mexico: $2.63
2. West Virginia: $2.57
3. Mississippi: $2.47
4. District of Colombia: $2.41
5. Hawaii: $2.38
6. Alabama: $2.03
7. Alaska: $1.93
8. Montana: $1.92
9. South Carolina: $1.92
10. Maine: $1.78

Read the full article (with interactive maps) here.

Political Hypocrisy: Taking it to the Bank (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
Who Benefits From Social Programs? (wcward57.wordpress.com)
Democrats need to build ways to turn blue-state subsidies into red-state votes (dailykos.com)
Abstract maps of the United States (flowingdata.com)

(Gasp) Hypocrisy In The Legislature!

Mar26 by D Gregory Smith

…about health care. Apparently, the legislators decrying health care reform with the loudest voices, have chosen to receive state financed health benefits worth up to $733.00 a month- and they’re on the run.

From Mike Dennison at The Missoulian:

Legislative officials agreed Friday to a Lee Newspapers request to release the names of all legislators accepting health insurance benefits from the state, revealing that all but seven of the 150 lawmakers chose to receive the health benefits, worth up to $733 a month.

Within hours of the information’s release, the Montana House refused to consider a bill putting into state law that the information on lawmaker health benefits should always be made public.

Don Pogreba had this to say from Intelligent Discontent:

As always, Representative Knox best represented the values of today’s Republican Party. He voted against the blast motion on SB 284 today, despite championing transparency about state spending two days earlier:

But let’s not end with Representative Knox today. Another well-known champion of liberty has apparently been seduced by the Marxist wiles of state bureaucracy and largesse. Even Representative Derek Skees has been transformed from a Galtian hero into a puppet of the state, gladly accepting benefits he knows to be socialistic.

Sigh.
I see chickens circling the henhouse- and the sun is going down…

Selective Service

Feb28 by D Gregory Smith

Wrong

Feb25 by D Gregory Smith

You are wrong about me.
Taking my measure with quick glances.
Pretending you own my story and telling it
With short, ugly words.

The light in my eyes
A stranger to your own, because you
Can’t seem to look long enough to
Recognize yourself- or anybody else, there.

But you know me- even though
You pretend to be completely
Alienated by the audacity
Of my words- which,
Upon second glance
Are held quietly in place
By the light in my eyes
And the spark in my soul
That refuse to bend to
The ugliness you profess to be beautiful.

And you wail at the injustice
and the abomination
and the economy.

And I mourn the loss of your sight-
Praying
That I am wrong about you, too.

~D Gregory Smith

Follow-up On “Daphne’s” Mom

Feb4 by D Gregory Smith

Remember the kid whose mom let him dress up as Daphne from Scooby Doo for Halloween?

Her Pastor’s thrown her out. I couldn’t believe it either. Read it here.

Strong Words

Feb3 by D Gregory Smith

Excellent (and short) homily. Wish I’d given it. Read it here.

Rehberg’s Little Promise

Jan23 by D Gregory Smith

Little Denny Rehberg is at it again- via Left in the West:

“I’m going to fulfill my promise to the people of Montana, that to the best of my ability I will defund Obamacare if we’re not able to repeal it,” Rehberg said in a telephone news conference.

Word remains to be heard on the defunding of his own cadillac health coverage. Full article here.

In Other Crazy Church News

Nov14 by D Gregory Smith

An Irish priest is banned by the Vatican from publishing any more of his writings after he suggested homosexuality is “simply a facet of the human condition”. Which it is.

“The truth will set you free.”

Hopefully soon.