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Like most of you, I have been defending Sarah Palin against baseless accusations since the shootings a week ago in Tucson. I have struggled to come to grips with how this guy could reach the point that he would commit such a horrific act, and how people that I considered to be friends could defend those who were so quick to attribute blame to Sarah for what the guy did. In the course of offering up a defense on my Facebook page, where I have almost 700 friends, I made this posting on Wednesday evening: If you want to see...

In his Tucson speech, Presi dent Obama rightly said that "terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding." Why that morning? Why Gabby Giffords? These and other questions can't be answered, but at a more pedestrian level, the massacre isn't so mysterious: Someone displaying all the symptoms of untreated schizophrenia killed people. This is not an extraordinarily rare or inexplicable occurrence. According to the psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, 4 million people in the United States have serious mental illnesses, and 1.8 million of them go untreated. Two hundred thousand are homeless, and 300,000 are in jail or prison. Tormented...

Fox News was able to interview a former girlfriend of Jared Loughner, the man awaiting trial for the weekend’s shooting outside a Tuscon, Arizona Safeway which left six people dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with a gunshot wound to the head. She shed some light on the background of one of the most talked about men in the country, and offered some information that seemed to be at odds with other things we’re learning and speculating about the 22-year-old shooter. Ashley Figueroa spoke briefly about Loughner’s (Former? Current? Is it even a factor in his crime?) drug use, sharing that...

"I know how to cut a body open and eat you for more then a week. ;-)" "Does anyone have aggression 24/7?" "Being alone for a very long time will inevitably lead you to rape." These postings to an online gaming forum, and others like them, shed further light on the troubled mental state of Jared Loughner, the suspect in Saturday's deadly Tucson shootings.

Did our angry political culture help motivate Jared Lee Loughner on what authorities say was his mad shooting spree? Maybe, but a more troubling question for me is why nobody stopped this often incoherent, irrational young man on his long path to the rampage in Tucson. I don't just mean the people who sold Loughner his Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol last November, or the people at a Wal-Mart who allegedly sold him ammunition a few hours before the assault. I mean the community in which he lived. This was a young man who showed signs of mental illness, yet in...

It wasn't long after news of the Tucson, Ariz., tragedy broke that the words "paranoid schizophrenic" entered the conversation. Armchair psychiatrists across the country looked at Jared Loughner -- 22, history of antisocial behavior, with a cache of rambling YouTube videos on government mind control -- and diagnosed him. But is there any truth to this? And if so, how does it help make sense of his horrific actions? To try and untangle the influences that might lead one lone gunman to fire his Glock at a political rally, we turned to Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, respected psychiatrist and one...

Why Wasn't Loughner's Mental Health Evaluated?Despite many red flags, he was never evaluated Updated: Tuesday, 11 Jan 2011, 6:50 PM MST TUCSON - As the legal case against Jared Loughner makes its way through the court system, the question is: could anything have been done to prevent the attack? Does anyone bear responsibility for failing to stop him? Pima Community College asked Jared Loughner to leave and not come back until his parents could show he was getting help with his mental health needs. That did not happen. An expert on mental health law in Arizona wishes the school had...

One or two commentators got it right, characterizing the shootings in Arizona of a congresswoman, judge, and four other bystanders -- including a 79-year-old woman and a nine-year-old girl, who attended the fateful event due to her interest in government and politics -- as an act committed by a deranged gunman. But the spin is on by the usual MSM suspects that the shootings were due to "hostility" and "polarization" caused by (guess who?) right-wingers who have ratcheted up the rhetoric about health care and immigration. Even the sheriff on the scene went to great lengths to politicize the tragedy,...

A neighbor says the parents of the suspect in Saturday's shooting spree in Tucson are devastated and guilt-ridden. Jared Loughnerappeared in court Monday on federal charges that he tried to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed a federal judge. He is also accused of killing five others and wounding or injuring 13 others. Wayne Smith, who lives across the street from the family, said Randy and Amy Loughner blame themselves.

Reporting from Tucson — The parents of Jared Lee Loughner, accused of shooting Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 other people, were huddled in seclusion in their Tucson home Monday night, his father crying and his mother so shaken she could not get out of bed, a neighbor told The Times. As the sun was beginning to set Monday, Randy Loughner called his neighbor, retired gasoline truck driver Wayne Smith, 70, to ask him to get their mail. Smith, who is not particularly close to the Loughners, grabbed the mail and was invited inside. "They're in there now," Smith said...

The news that Blue-Dog Democrat Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by a deeply disturbed young man was certainly enough to shock. Add to that the death of a Republican-appointed chief judge. Further add the heart-rending death of a nine-year-old girl who was born on September 11th, 2001. Four others died along with those two. Eleven others were wounded along with Rep. Giffords. The young man who killed and wounded them is all-but certainly a schizophrenic. He's of the age when male schizophrenics first undergo a break from reality. In Jared Lee Loughner's case, his break was both psychotic...

ROARING BROOK TWP. - A young man claiming to be a Shiite Muslim stabbed his stepfather Wednesday night with a butcher's knife, township police said. Alex Williams, 21, of 204 Forrest Drive, stabbed his sleeping stepfather, James Williams, with a 13-inch butcher's knife and ran from his bedroom yelling to his mother, "I had to do it ... I'm a terrorist ... I'm a Shiite," according to an affidavit. When police responded at 10:40 p.m. Wednesday they found Alex Williams lying at the top of the staircase and James Williams bleeding in his bed from a stab wound to the...

Shockingly, this thirst for foreign nature worship is often described in graphic sexual language to heighten the shameful offensiveness of their actions. In Jeremiah, the kingdom of Judah is compared to “a wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness that sniffs the wind in her passion. In the time of heat who can turn her away? All who seek her will not become weary; in her month they will find her (Jeremiah 2:24).” In the same context just a few verses back, the text reads “for long ago I broke your yoke and tore off your bonds; but you said ‘I...

Cindy McCain announced that she is against the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" one day after she appeared in a video where she lends her support to end the ban on gays openly serving in the military. Earlier this week, the former Presidential candidate's wife appeared in a video campaign for the group NOH8 railing on the United States' controversial military policy – a policy that her husband supports. "Our political and religious leaders tell LGBT youth that they have no future ... They can't serve our country openly," she said on the video. (snip) But on Friday night,...

Jackson County prosecutors today charged a student wearing a bullet-resistant vest with slashing the throat of a dean at the Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley just 20 minutes before Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon was scheduled to speak there. Prosecutors charged Casey Brezik, of Raytown, with two counts of first-degree assault and two counts or armed criminal action in connection with the 9:35 a.m. attack on the second floor of the Humanities Building on the campus at 3210 Southwest Trafficway. ....> About an hour before the stabbing, Brezik posted an update that said: “Pharaoh let my people go! We have but two...

They are messengers from God, heavenly beings without material bodies, spiritual envoys carrying out God's will. They are angels. And according to Lorna Byrne, everyone has one -- a guardian angel who’s always with you and will never leave you. She says they are “the gatekeepers of your soul.” She knows this, she says, because all her life she's been surrounded by them and has talked to them. Her book, Angels in My Hair, recounts her lifelong experiences with angels directing her and teaching her. Byrne's story begins with the telling of her toddler years, when the angels told her...

Note: Video included. "Bin Laden's Son Is Hospitalized After He Hears His Father's Voice Omar Bin Laden Is Treated for Schizophrenia, Wife Asks for Divorce" July 9, 2010 SNIPPET: ""It's true that he was put on medication but released himself early," said a spokesman for Zeina Al Sabah, Omar's wife. The spokesman confirmed that Omar had bipolar disorder and was on anti-depressants." SNIPPET: ""Omar loves and hates Osama at the same time," she said." SNIPPET: "Omar, 29, has denounced his father's terrorist tactics and ideology. But he still maintains an emotional bond..." SNIPPET: "Much of Osama Bin Laden's family, comprising...

The baby she’s carrying will face a lifetime of hate, and the woman who is pregnant with Osama bin Laden’s British grandchild is terrified. Louise Pollard, 24, agreed to be a surrogate mom for Omar bin Laden, 29, one of bin Laden’s many children, and his wife, Zaina, 54. The couple hired the young blonde personal assistant — and she became pregnant on her third attempt at in-vitro fertilization, a British newspaper reported yesterday. But the anxious Pollard has been the target of vitriol from people who blast her her for agreeing to bring into the world a British grandchild...

New study led by University of Montreal scientists identifies genetic association This release is available in French. Montreal, April 12, 2010 – An international study led by Université de Montréal scientists suggests that gene mutations may predispose some individuals to schizophrenia and provides new clues about the causes of this ambiguous disorder. Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings demonstrate that new mutations in the SHANK3 gene are found in schizophrenic patients. "That these de novo or new mutations occur in schizophrenia is rather unexpected and may explain why the identification of the genes...

A WOMAN has been found guilty of stalking, in a bizarre case in which she tried to organise acts of violence against herself. The Mercury reports Ellen Hazel Triffett, 53, of the Tasmanian Central Highlands, was given a suspended jail sentence yesterday for stalking her local store owner. The Hobart Magistrates Court heard Bronte Park general store owner Wayne Turale started receiving a series of disturbing letters in October 2006. Over 18 months, he received 10 of the poorly written letters, instructing him to perform or organise acts of violence against Mrs Triffett, who was one of his customers. Each...