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And the lawyer for the defendant told the victim that she could have avoided the sex assault if she had just adjusted her own behavior. The West is swiftly internalizing the idea that whenever Muslims commit acts of violence, it’s the non-Muslim victim’s fault.

Army Sergeant Major Jesse Acosta has received notification from the VA that his benefits for a caregiver are ending in 90 days, at the end of May. The letter he received from the VA states “he is no longer appropriate for the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers.” They say they are pleased to inform him of this. According to the VA, even though Acosta, blinded by a mortar attack in Iraq, is still blind, they are excited (with an exclamation point to prove it) to let him know they have determined he’s “graduated,” and no longer needs a...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday presented a check for $100,000 to an organization that trains dogs for veterans with PTSD and mobility issues. Trump gave the check to the Puppy Jake Foundation during a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa, with Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. Three dogs and Puppy Jake representatives came onstage to receive the donation...

Sarah Palin decided to make a political issue of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder. "My son, like so many others," she said at a rally endorsing Donald Trump for President, "came back a bit different." Normally, veterans like me would view this positively - as a needed discussion after two wars that have impacted nearly 2.5 million U.S. service members. But we're talking about Palin here, and that's not where she took it. Instead, she used PTSD to excuse - or at least shift blame away from - her son's arrest on domestic violence charges the night before. According to police...

Let' just call her tasteless. Real tasteless. And classless. Very classless. She showed that in spades this week, when she blamed President Obama for her son Track's recent domestic violence arrest. Track spent a year in Iraq with the Army, and Palin says his problems with domestic violence exemplify what happens to soldiers who come back home with PTSD. And who does she blame for this? Yep, Obama. "My son, like so many others, they come back a bit different, they come back hardened," Palin said at a rally where she was supporting Donald Trump. She went on to whine...

Gun violence kills about 30,000 Americans every year and mass shootings -- extremely rare in most countries -- have been on the rise in the United States. According to tracking website gunviolencearchive.org, there were 330 mass shootings in the United States last year, up from 281 in 2014. ???

Obama gun control executive order compromises doctor-patient confidentiality for "mental health" issues In 2nd Amendment by Poor Richard January 5, 2016 Comment Once again, President Obama is circumventing Congress and the Constitution by issuing decrees and implementing them as if they are law. This time, he's going after a fundamental civil right protected by the Constitution: our right to keep and bear arms. Much of the media focus on Obama's executive orders thus far has been on the background checks provisions that would require private sellers of even a single firearm to register with the Federal Government as a "firearms...

Bobbie Bee can no longer contain her outrage after her husband was prescribed a drug that if taken in conjunction with his current cocktail of medications potentially could have raised his serotonin levels to dangerous heights, a risk that she says - and the FDA warns — "could've been deadly." "I can't carry them all at once," Bobbie J. Bee says over the unmistakable sound of pills individually bouncing off the sides of plastic bottling tubes as she walks in from her home's kitchen and into the dining room. She lays the containers out one-by-one. "These are for nerves, anger...

Review by B.W. Durham “Resilience,” the new book by former Navy Seal and Rhodes Scholar Eric Greitens, is an inspiring guidebook for anyone who has confronted personal loss, harsh challenges in their own life, the death of a loved one or emotional pain. That is to say… “Resilience” is a book for everyone. The sub-title of Greitens’ book is “Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life.” Indeed, “Resilience” offers earned wisdom and insights that can help people forge ahead in times of struggle, and become stronger. But this is not a “how-to” book. It acknowledges serious traumas that can change...

Tyler Schlagel slipped out of his parents' house while they were asleep three weeks ago and drove through the wintry darkness to his favorite fishing lake high in the Rockies. Mr. Schlagel, a 29-year-old former Marine corporal who was stocking shelves at a sporting goods store, carried with him the eight journals he had filled during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also carried a .40-caliber pistol. Under the bright mountain stars, he kindled a small campfire. When the flames grew high, he threw the journals into the fire, then shot himself in the head. Mr. Schlagel's death Dec. 9...

When the Redlands Tea Party Patriots objected to the resettling of Syrian Muslim migrants in their community, CAIR accused them of "paranoia and phobia is rooted in a combination of ignorance and bigotry." But "paranoia and phobia" are the modern condition that the free world has found itself living in. Islamic terrorism can strike anytime and anywhere from a Paris concert hall to a San Bernardino County facility where disabled children were being helped. It's ignorance to ignore that and bigotry to defend it. "What will be done to ensure the safety of our community? Our biggest concern is the...

First, we must express our sincere gratitude and respect for all those Veterans who carried the Flag before us, all those who served on our left and on our right and all those who picked up the Flag and moved forward after us. No matter where, when or in what role, your service is appreciated and recognized. And, Happy Birthday to the USMC – Semper Fidelis! As the first Veterans’ Day to be discussed from the Veterans’ Perspective, we must address one of the most important topics to be share with the civilian community. A Tragic Myth of PTSD –...

He was both gunman and hostage, and, as he told a friend who was trying desperately to make him surrender, it was time for him to be "put down." When he fired at the officers, they returned fire, striking him nine times. And so, this summer when he saw his master lying in the flag-draped casket, Honor pushed through the clutch of weeping family members, reared up, placed his paws on the edge and tried to climb in. Unable to comfort Baker, the lanky black dog in the camouflage-patterned vest curled up underneath.

Ketamine, a drug that is used as an anesthetic, may be a way to safely treat pain, PTSD, depression, and ringing ears (tinnitus), a new study suggests. Since the drug is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it could potentially be available sooner and cost less. “It’s a lot more economical to repurpose drugs than to take a new drug and make it from scratch,” says David E. Potter, professor and chair of pharmaceutical sciences at Texas A&M University’s Rangel College of Pharmacy. “Not only in terms of dollars, but also in terms of time.” And because a...

A three-member board recommended Friday that Fort Bragg Staff Sgt. Joshua Eisenhauer be separated from the Army on a general discharge under honorable conditions. When he awoke in a Chapel Hill hospital bed, Eisenhauer looked at his nurse and demanded to know: "Who's covering the roof?" A psychologist and a psychiatrist testified Friday that severe PTSD and other factors led Eisenhauer to suffer a "pathological flashback" that caused him to think he was shooting at Afghan insurgents, not police and firefighters. "The blur of reality is just all crunching around him. So what's he shooting at? He's not even sure,"...

In the science fiction thriller “Minority Report,” a police force known as PreCrime uses mutated human psychics to identify criminals before they act. The U.S. Army is working toward a similar goal — not by reading minds but by crunching data. Using the military records of all 975,057 soldiers who served during a six-year period, researchers have developed an algorithm they hope can help prevent severe, violent crimes by identifying those at greatest risk of becoming perpetrators. They would not be pre-arrested, but rather given counseling or other interventions aimed at heading off violence.

After the sixth suicide in his old battalion, Manny Bojorquez sank onto his bed. With a half-empty bottle of Jim Beam beside him and a pistol in his hand, he began to cry. He had gone to Afghanistan at 19 as a machine-gunner in the Marine Corps. In the 18 months since leaving the military, he had grown long hair and a bushy mustache. It was 2012. He was working part time in a store selling baseball caps and going to community college while living with his parents in the suburbs of Phoenix. He rarely mentioned the war to friends...

Mad at his former girlfriend and probably drunk, Joshua Eisenhauer's only brother hopped into his red Camaro and peeled away from the party at his house. The Camaro screamed down Basswood Boulevard - past newly built homes in an affluent bedroom community of Fort Worth - until the road jagged to the left. Maybe it was the speed, or the fog, or the road construction. Whatever the reason, 19-year-old Eric Eisenhauer missed the turn. The Camaro clipped a barricade, slammed into a berm and flipped before skidding into the Texas scrub.

NORVELL TWP, MI -- Rick Briggs has always been involved in charity work to help veterans, but when his son came back from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, he knew more needed to be done for veterans. "A lot of guys put a gun in their mouth because they don't have hope, they don't have a purpose," Briggs said. "They need both hope and purpose to move forward." So, Briggs partnered with other volunteers to bring a shared dream to life. The 137-acre campsite of Camp Liberty, once finished, will feature a welcome center able to house a large family...

MADISON, Wis. – Michael Lutz, the highly decorated former Milwaukee cop and John Doe whistleblower, fatally shot himself early Sunday morning just inside the Milwaukee County line. Multiple sources tell Wisconsin Watchdog that Lutz lived an agonized life in the years after he was shot while on the job in 2005. Things got worse, those sources say, after he went public about Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm’s “hyper-partisan” pursuit of Republican Gov. Scott Walker. “I know Mike, and the worst thing he could have imagined was being in a mug shot, in an orange jumpsuit on a perp walk,”...