Mental Health
A review of key indicators of despair over time in the U.S. — including suicide rates, drug overdoses, and reports of anxiety — shows that the intensification of America’s mental health decline coincides almost perfectly with the invention of smartphones and the popularization of social media. The number of mass shootings, especially those conducted by young males, also ticks up in the same time period.
The first iPhone was released in the United States in June 2007. Facebook was opened up to anyone aged 13 or over in 2006. Instagram launched in 2010, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were released in 2005 and 2006, respectively. The mental health of teenagers and young adults has plummeted rapidly since the mid-2000s, as screen time and social isolation have skyrocketed.
Can you imagine what would happen if the researchers established a direct link between Smart Phones and mass shootings? Would they ask for them to be banned?
When you add in the dreadful government policies like isolation, masking and business shut downs ruing the plague, everything has been magnified. The woke policies that essentially emasculate young men that are promoted by the media and the left must be added into this calculus.
Two generations ago there were just as many firearms in the hands of people and nobody heard of mass school shootings.
Xi May Not Survive
I hear a lot of chatter these days leaking from behind the Bamboo Curtain that President-for-Life Xi built around the ‘new’ PRC.
When China’s position as an economic powerhouse was secure, so was President Xi Jinping’s position. Now structural issues within the country’s financial system & lockdowns of essential hubs and even entire provinces pose a threat to Xi’s tenure.
The real question is whether the People’s Liberation Army will continue to support Xi.
The PLA, the PLAN and the Chinese Public Security Bureau derive much of the money that funds leadership from their commercial ventures – hotels, whorehouses, manufacturing for export, etc. feeds the generals. They’re not being fed today.
POWs
Colonel Brownrigg and two young Russian POWs (Alma and Inkermann). Crimean War, 1855
Lunch Idea
First, a disclaimer – cooking with LSP is better than anything you’ll see on this blog – ok, on with the suggestion.
Cook a chuck roast in a crock pot, adding french onion soup. and dry Italian dressing packets, pepperoncini, and Italian seasoning to the crockpot.
Cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for about 8-9 hours.
Then shred the beef removing any fat, gristle, and cartilage. Then toast the buns in a toaster or under the broiler adding cheese to both sides of the bun and place back under the broiler on low until melted. Top with shredded beef, pepperoncini, and onions. Serve with small bowls of au jus on the side for dipping.
Notes:
You can use whole pepperoncini or sliced pepperoncini. The sliced ones are better because you can add them to the sandwiches after being cooked. Of course, you can also cut whole peppers down if you’re not lazy.
Chuck roast has fat and cartilage and that is what makes it so tender after it is slow simmered. Top round is great but it’s a lot more expensive. Do not use the Bill Gates “artificial meat” whatever you do.
Buns, hoagies, french bread, Bolio rolls, and even toasted white bread make great sandwiches with this recipe.
Any cheese that melts well works on this sandwich including but not limited to Swiss, mozzarella, provolone, Pepper Jack, and Monterey Jack.
Historical Interlude
History of Rome: According to the traditional story, it was in the 6th century BC that an enclosure (the Servian wall) was built. During the republican period Rome was covered with temples, it became the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the western world.
Today Rome is still well worth a visit now that the covid plague is no longer an issue.
A New Remix (h/t Frank)
Tiger 2
I ran onto this photo of a Tiger II. I’m not going to make you guess the tank, besides, you’d get it right off – way too easy. The spin is the pre-production turret, (circa 1944). If the Germans had these tanks in large numbers in 1939, just like their later U-Boats with air independent propulsion, jet fighters, etc. the war would have taken a different turn.
Last Call
When you consider that the last dozen plus mass murders by vehicle and firearm have been committed by Democrats & Communists (difficult to tell the difference), it might be a good idea – just to keep us all safe, if they were all disarmed and if they walked from now on.
That chuck roast sub looks good. Items added to grocery list.
You will NOT be sorry.
Sandwich looks absolutely scrumptious. I will put that on the “try it you’ll like it” list for sure.
There are benefits of kids having cell phones but I am not sure if they outweigh the drawbacks. I have continually spoken to both of my sons about limiting the grandkids access to games, maybe half hour or at most an hour a day. So far I have been unsuccessful.
There are also the first-person shooter video games. Add those to the mix of social change, cell phones, prozac (Raven below), etc.
Is there a fix for this? Can’t remember when this started, but for quite some time the graphics you post only appear once a week on my PC.
I can’t speak to that. I live in the mountains and bandwidth is a problem for me (too). That is likely the problem.
+yum on the chuck roast. My wife does that with the onion soup, and adds cut up red potatoes and onions. She doubles the onion soup so we have enough gravy to drown everything.
Tiger II. When I was in in Small Arms Repair School at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in ’74, I saw the ramp where the museum parked stuff that was not on display yet. Went over and walked around on a weekend. They had a Tiger II with (IIRC) the left side of the turret removed for a sort of cut-away view of the inside. Excellent discussion here at Tank Chats–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuDuBwAhRa4
The time line of the introduction of SSRI’s- Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors AKA prozak etc., coincide very closely with school shootings.
The match is almost exact when the gangland drivebys and errant BB guns used to enhance the propaganda ,are pulled out of the mix.
It is well known that a small percentage of teens (the effect is absent from adults, for unknown reasons) will have homicidal and suicidal tendencies when taking them. We are creating rage monsters with our broken families and drug soaked children.
Yes, absolutely. It is one more contributing factor to a pantheon of social and tech changes. Maybe the meds are the worst of those?
I agree. Virtually every mass shooter had no father figure and was on mood meds or had just quit mood meds cold turkey.
However Big Pharm has no interest in discussing this.
As long as The Big Guy and all them sumbitches what tell him what to do get their 10% or more, Big Pharm doesn’t have to discuss this. Monkey pox vaccine, anyone?
You sound like white domestic terrorists Don, and WWW get two or three booster shots each and you’ll come to love the Big Guy and realize that Hunter is the smartest guy he’s ever met.
I was reading the other day about the MacDonald Triad being a predictor of mass shootings or at least a predictor of that type of behavior. Maybe using that and being loads less willing to drug kids can help.
I hate the term, “kids these days” but they’re up against an array that I never faced. Drugs, the lure of computer games the isolation that comes from social media where everyone is having more fun than you, etc. Alienation enhanced by plague rules are icing on the cake.
As to the triad, bed wetting, animal cruelty and fire setting should alert somebody. Add to that “cutting” or simulated cutting and self-mutilation, gender confusion, bullying, it’s a damned long list. Some kill others, some kill themselves, some find a future in politics.
Dammit, LL, that looks delicious and you’ve encouraged me to get back in the kitchen. After all, an army marches on its stomach, said someone who knew about such things. Speaking of which, thanks for the photo of Col. Brownrigg, DLC on secondment to UKLF Crimea. We know know he treats his new orderlies well.
Then there’s biology. Weird how the people who say they “follow the science” don’t get it, at all, #biology
delete 2nd *know, obvs
You can’t the difference between a male and female anything unless you’re a credentialed biologist.
BUT you can enjoy a delicious beef dip. I had swiss on mine today.
Following the science always seems to lead back to money – strange, that.
After watching what my youngest played (after he left home and was on his own) disturbed me. I though then those games took away from the reality they supposedly replicated. Too sanitized.
Rap. I absolutely won’t listen to it. What message does it embed in the listener? Young people with any spunk will always have a rebellious streak and rap lyrics (if they can be called that) glorify all types of anti-social behavior.
I forgot about the endless violent rap. When you listen to what they listen to, it’s a wonder that they can function at all.
When I’m forced to listen to it in the car next to em, it’s a wonder I don’t get violent.
X2
The Germans would have done perfectly fine with Panthers and Tiger 1s. The Tiger II was a mechanical monstrocity, it looked good but…
Add in the late Pzkfw IIIJs with the long 5.0cm and the IVs with the long 7.5cm, along with the Stug III with the long 7.5 or the 10.5cm, with just the Tiger I as heavy backup, that would be a mix that would have been able to take care of everything except maybe the heaviest Char or KV1, until the Tiger I showed up.
As to kiddie violence, it is more related to lack of parental control (usually by single mothers) and by the lack of proper education than it is in ‘violent’ games and music. Shit, we played murder-death-combat all over the neighborhoods I lived in, even using BB guns against each other (don’t shoot higher than the shoulders, no face shots, no overpumping your variable pressure guns (Daisy powerlines and such.)) We grew up around actual guns and hunting and doing stuff.
But because we learned cause-and-effect (You cause blood to show and your parents will effect upon your ass hard) and were taught manners and mores by parents and priests and teachers, we could get away with having drunken keggers in high school, rampant drug use, heavy sexing all over the place and plot the death of all students and teachers and not actually kill each other (yes, I did have a plan to kill everyone in school because they all sucked and were mean to me, but I knew better. Still….)
It wasn’t until the socialists fully took over the education system and when the government took over the parenting system that any of this really began to happen. Which, yes, coincides with the widespread use of mood affecting drugs in order to control males.
Yes, males. The pussification of males by the socialists and leftist groomers. The systemic attacks on masculinity and heterosexuality and Christianity and Chivalry. (Seriously, I love correcting idiotic twitwiffles who don’t like being called ‘Ma’am’ and don’t understand it’s a sign of respect for their position and/or age. A 16yo can be a ma’am, as can a 60yo. What is it with wymyn that they don’t want to be respected?)
Yes, social media tends to push it, but if the basic morals and mores were in place, social media would not have the base of insanity to work on.
You really want to find out the connection between all of these messed-up kids? Link the broken home to the groomer culture to the socialist movement. That’s what’s driving it all. Has little-to-nothing to do with violent games or movies or music (Fer copulation’s sake, I grew up on early heavy metal and drug music and stuff like that, and I turned out (somewhat mostly)okay and I fit the psych profile of these kids, depressed loner with issues who hated everyone.)
Seriously, none of the music, games, books, anything would affect the kids if they weren’t already systemically broken by The System.
As to how to fix it all? Simple. Return to Cause-and-Effect, Reward-and-Punishment. Get paddled or belted for acting out in class. The judicial system acting judicially and punishing youthful offenders. No more ‘everyone gets a trophy’ and there are winners and losers (what do you call 2nd Place? First Loser!)
This, of course, will only happen if we can reform the educational system. Teachers must pass competency tests to be able to teach. No more ‘education majors.’ Nope. Want to teach math? Graduate in math. Same with Science. Same with Engrish. Maybe take a seminar or a minor in teaching but kill Education Degrees as they are evil. (Same with Social Work degrees, and both are the two easiest to get degrees at any school. Phys Ed degrees require more actual science and math than Education or Social Work.)
Excellent treatise.
I’ve said for years, “Woman are the gatekeepers.”…it’s God’s prescription as a complementary set up between (yes, only two), male and female, men and woman, boys and girls. If the woman don’t demand that young adult males become men, or operate as gentleman, they (we) won’t. We now have “guys”, not men. Basically 12 year old biys inside adult male bodies, immature. For the past decade or more, girls have decided they want to operate as boys (stupid young male mode)…and it shows. Getting drunk on Friday nights is not a good look or prescription for a healthy life. But that’s now been normalized, and then wonder why they run into trouble. Flip it around, boys are being groomed to be effeminate by lefty teachers and coddled by single moms who kicked dad out of the house, resulting – by prescription I contend – little to no adult male influence. This norm-twisting is in direct conflict of our nature, it screws with the head and soul.
The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world. And they’ve been turning out a lot of bun boys and pajama boys who need a father’s touch – but dad is absent. The nuclear family is critical to a healthy society. I grew up in a broken home. My father and mother were dysfunctional but their children grew up remarkably functional. The same was true of MRSLL and her family. We saw in our parents things that we didn’t like and we all changed it. (she has 3 siblings and so do I – all of them broke the pattern) This generation – took a different turn as a broad group and the education system has a lot of the blame on their shoulders – as do parents who didn’t take a firm hand to stop teachers. The hand that rocks the cradle, etc. shouldn’t be a teacher you don’t know.
Concur, Beans. There wasn’t even anything much worthwhile to shoot with a Tiger II until ’42 at least, anyway. On top of that, even the Tiger I was something of a mobility nightmare; the II was pretty limited where and how far it could go w/o a transporter.
Also concur on kids.
I grew up with computer games, although they were pretty primitive when I was in High School, and I had to go to friends’ houses to play on their machines… didn’t have my own computer until I was 22 or 3. Still a big computer and tangible gamer today. I also had mood issues (doesn’t every teenager?) and violent thoughts (still do, doesn’t every boy / man?). I think a big part of the problem is that we don’t teach kids responsibility, self-control, and humility any more, as a society. Some parents do, and they tend to raise the functional kids. Others let them run wild, and the “government help” usually doesn’t.
-Kle.
A lot of what-if’s when it comes to Hitler’s priorities with funding weapons. Adm. Doenitz said if he only had 100 more subs he could have won the war. Maybe so, the war in the Atlantic was a close-run thing. History is fascinating. Good blog post, LL.
Hitler, Goering, Himmler and the whole bunch at the top of the Nazi tree were competent enough to move public opinion given the political climate post WW1, but they lacked the vision and genuine military genius necessary to win the long game – the 1000 year Reich. The world is extremely lucky in that regard.
If you visit Rome today, be prepared to deal with feral pigs and garbage piles.
The openly communist mayor has made city services a low priority.
I did a chuck roast in the crock pot using your ingredients. It was great! The wife wanted hers with sautéed mushrooms and swiss cheese. She loved it. I used whole peppercini’s split lengthwise cooking and as a topper along with some sautéed Vidalia onion and swiss cheese.
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