Columnists

The 2016 election has been defined by Hillary Clinton's performance in the three presidential debates. Snap polls indicated she defeated Donald Trump in each encounter. And since the first debate, Clinton's lead over Trump has expanded both in terms of estimates of the popular vote and share of the Electoral College. Clinton's decisive victory was due to her talent and preparation. Trump lost because of obvious defects. -more-

On October 28, 2016, FBI Director sent a letter to Congress "in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation." The emails were found on a computer used by Huma Abedin, former deputy chief-of-staff to Secretary of State Clinton, and backed up on her husband's (disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner) computer. -more-

In his inaugural State of the Nation Address on July 25, newly-elected Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte declared that there were 3.7 million “drug addicts” in the Philippines. But according to a 2015 survey by the Office of the President’s Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), the main drug policy and research unit, the Philippines has fewer than half that many drug users.

Whether the drug problem in the Philippines is as drastic as Duterte makes out, since assuming the presidency of the Philippines in June, more than 3,000 suspected drug dealers and traffickers have been killed in his war on drugs. Many of those executions have been carried out via the Philippine National Police (PNP), who have aggressively worked to locate and punish all individuals linked to the movement of drugs under the president’s new anti-crime agenda. But vigilantes, empowered by Duterte’s rhetoric and call for citizen action, have also taken matters into their own hands, with staggering results. While the PNP have been responsible for approximately 712 deaths, individual citizens have been linked to 1,067. -more-

People suffering from schizophrenia, depression, or bipolar are not as able to gain benefit from stretching our limits compared to someone not afflicted. The old saying that you should "lift yourself by your bootstraps" should not be generously applied to persons with severe mental disabilities. "Tough love" does not always work for mentally ill people.

It is said that for a number of persons with mental illness, including some suffering from "dual-diagnosis" (which is a substance abuse problem combined with a psychiatric disorder) death may happen before a person "hits bottom."

But today's column isn't really about substance abuse. I am talking about, in general, how people are expected to sink or swim, or where a bird is shoved out of the nest and expected to fly. This strategy shouldn't necessarily be applied to persons with psych disabilities. -more-