by Runaway Slave | Jan 21, 2010 | depression, Drugs, Libertarian Curmudgeon, Prozac, SSRI
A recent Prozac shooting in the news here in Costa Rica (in Spanish, shooter and mother in treatment for depression) reminded me of how little attention the association between SSRI drugs and violence gets in the mainstream news. I was surprised to come across this...
by Runaway Slave | May 20, 2009 | Drugs, Essays & Articles, Government, Libertarian Curmudgeon
The Spanish headline in Costa Rica’s biggest daily, La Nación, registered awkwardly in my old Gringo head, “Son kills with bullets the mother and himself shoots in the head.” The mangled word order didn’t keep me from having my next thought, however, which was a...
by Runaway Slave | Apr 10, 2005 | Drugs, Education, Essays & Articles, Fraud, Libertarian Curmudgeon, War On Drugs (WOD)
Prozac was invented by the same folks who lit up my college years with LSD, the Eli Lilly Company. Interesting as the purple haze was, I would not recommend LSD to the mentally fragile or children under any circumstances nor to sane adults as anything but a risky...
by Runaway Slave | Mar 10, 2005 | Drugs, Essays & Articles, Human Interest, Libertarian Curmudgeon, War On Drugs (WOD)
“Lord, help me to be the man my dog thinks I am.” — A Bumper Sticker Prayer Between the ages of four and ten I lived in the Golden Age of TV Dog Worship. TV heroes in my 1950’s childhood included Neil, the lovable St. Bernard in the quirky series Topper, feisty little...
by Runaway Slave | Sep 28, 2004 | Drugs, Essays & Articles, Jury, Law, Libertarian Curmudgeon
You think I mean the war in Iraq, right? No, it’s not that. You have no real power over the wars our government wages against penniless peasants thousands of miles away. I mean the war here at home, the nasty war that destroys the lives of thousands of Americans each...
by Runaway Slave | Aug 7, 2004 | Drugs, Essays & Articles, Libertarian Curmudgeon, Politics, War On Drugs (WOD)
The Old Testament describes a ritual of atonement. The Jews call it Yom Kippur. The ceremony features a luckless goat, chosen by lot, on whom the priests symbolically place the sins of the community. The priests then toss the “goat of removal,” or scapegoat, over a...
by Runaway Slave | Apr 4, 2004 | Drugs, Essays & Articles, Law, Libertarian Curmudgeon, Politics, War On Drugs (WOD)
Part III Business is Good Until the start of the War on Drugs in 1973 drug prohibition was a slapdash affair driven by paranoia, xenophobia, self-righteousness, bureaucratic self-interest and the demonstrated vote-getting power of being “hard on drugs.“ Empty...
