Columnists

Have you noticed that when you go to a CVS store, you find fewer and fewer things you’d written down on your list, that the shelves are emptier, that you can’t get common antibiotics at the pharmacy, and that getting refills, even though you’ve been reassured by phone they're waiting for you, often requires you to return in 20 minutes because of a glitch somewhere in their system? -more-

Persons with mental illness need to shoulder some of the responsibility for our actions, but this is not one hundred percent. A psychotic or bipolar illness can at times disconnect us from reality, and this means improper actions that we do not always control. -more-

Now that the dust has settled—literally and figuratively—from Israel’s Jan. 29 air attack on Syria, the question is, why? According to Tel Aviv, the bombing was aimed at preventing the transfer of sophisticated Russian SA-17 anti-craft missiles to Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, which one former Israeli military intelligence officer said would be “a game-changer.” But there are major problems with that story. -more-

The Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on John Brennan's nomination to be CIA director intensified the opposition to CIA-directed drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Drones, by the way, are unmanned aerial vehicles either controlled from the ground or increasingly, autonomously following a pre-programmed mission. Unlike manned aircraft they can stay aloft for many hours. For example, Zephyr, a British drone under development, broke the world record by flying over 82 hours nonstop. Also, Drones are much cheaper than military aircraft and, because they are flown remotely, there is no danger to a flight crew. -more-

There was a lot to like about the President’s State-of-the-Union Address. Obama hit the right topics with passion lacking in many of his previous speeches to Congress. And he displayed an edge not seen in his first term. The President spoke of bipartisanship but his tone was confrontational. -more-

The feminist writer Susan Griffin first used the title of this article in Ramparts Magazine in 1971. She was the first feminist to explain that men rape children, elderly and disabled women, not just girls dressed in mini- skirts. In other words, she challenged the belief that that rape was a sexual act, fueled by men’s irrepressible sexual drive. Instead, she argued that it was an assault against a woman, fueled by the desire to control and harm a woman, not a sexual act at all. -more-

Twenty years after the United Nations declared violence against women to be a violation of their human rights, we are still a long way from gender violence becoming unacceptable in a society. The outrage in India has ignited a necessary international conversation [16] about rape and violence against women worldwide -more-

This is the last of five articles analyzing the key issues the Obama administration faces over the next four years. -more-

As President Obama begins his second term, he’s not lacking for challenges, such as jobs, immigration and gun control, not to mention Afghanistan and Iran. Meanwhile, recalcitrant Republicans contest very move the President makes. But Obama’s biggest challenge, economic inequality, gets little attention from many politicians. -more-

When someone with mental illness goes through a difficult time period, it is important to take steps to take extra care of oneself. Too much of a crisis, if not dealt with well enough, can trigger a return of acute mental illness. The difficult event by itself, in the absence of quitting medications, is sometimes enough to trigger a relapse. On the other hand, such an event can get a person destabilized and upset to the point where we stop taking medication. The return of acute symptoms can happen either way. (And, in fact, sometimes a person with very severe schizophrenia has a relapse with no apparent event as a trigger.) -more-

In most scenarios of medical treatment other than for mental illness, the adult patient has the final say concerning accepting treatment or not accepting it. In the case of a DNR for example (it stands for Do Not Resuscitate) the patient's choice is to pass away naturally instead of facing life as a "vegetable" hooked up to life support machines. In most medical scenarios, the exception to someone having a choice concerning treatment is when the patient is in a coma or in shock and can't be consulted. Even if a person is having a heart attack and needs to be treated urgently, it is my understanding that, if the person is still conscious, physicians will try and get a signature. -more-

Studies show that elderly drivers can exercise their brains to prevent or delay age-related declines in their driving skills. Now scientists want to figure out how to apply that knowledge to help retirees preserve driving skills into their “golden years.” A University of Alabama, Birmingham researcher has already demonstrated that brain training does reduce the incidence of crashes among older drivers. -more-