At some point in my past, I read a dusty book on her. I remember a scene in her life, where she prayed without cease. A most profound vision of God eventually came to her: She saw a world reflected in infinite mirrors, so that elements of each things were reflected in other things, and the voice of the Almighty spoke to her - "All I hate is a lie" it said. "All I hate is a lie."

I can't remember where I found that account, and I can't find it now. But its a damn challenging idea: The worst sins we can do in this world aren't in any evil action we can think of, they are in the simple subtle act of telling a lie. But as time goes on, I realize (as a total sinner in this regard) that it may be the most pure and incredibly true concept I have ever encountered in all of theology.

But never mind...

whose only means of support are Medicare, SS, and a public school pension. He would be on the street if not for those. Yet he sits and watches Fox all day.

Fox Nation is a bunch of rabid dogs, and the problem isn't going away until we treat them as such. The question is, why haven't we fought back?

Sadly I know far too many of them.

I remember when Pres Obama appointed Justice Sotomayor saying she had empathy. Top Republicans reacted with humor making fun of her because she had empathy. Then someone clued them in, explaining that empathy was a good thing to most Americans.

see the movie "The Hunger Games" then...see what a world without empathy brings.

Being raised in a Republican household excludes empathy.

The lack of comprehensive mental health care in this country "killed" this woman.

And even if we had comprehensive mental health care in this country, I'm not sure that would mean that the woman would have been forced to receive treatment.

As a party, they don't.

Then certainly almost the entirety of republicans are as well.

I don't know if you want to be friends, or if you have a grudge, or if you just like arguing, but I find that you go out of your way to post argumentative and non-responsive remarks to me.

It doesn't bother me terribly (not the least of which because I find DU3 far less interesting than DU2, and therefore don't spend as much time here any more,) but I will admit to not knowing where you'd care to go from here.

I wasn't trying to be disrespectful in disagreeing with it.

You noted that it was the lack of mental health care in this country which killed this woman. I don't think that's the case as she shares the same views as a good chunk of the country. Was she stupid? Ignorant? Yes. I don't think she was crazy. I agree with the premise of the OP. She was ignorant and easily misled by Fox News. That caused her to be so paranoid that she refused to get treatment. I think Fox has far more blame in this regard than the lack of universal mental health care in this country.

I at least appreciate having a "for real" moment for a change.

"That caused her to be so paranoid that she refused to get treatment. I think Fox has far more blame in this regard than the lack of universal mental health care in this country."

Paranoid dementia is an EXTREMELY common ailment associated with aging. I have some personal pain in this area, and it colors my reading of the issue. That's where I'm coming from here. I have to leave it at that, as this story hits fairly close to home for me.

In my family's case, Fox News had nothing to do with the source of my loved one's delusions and paranoia but the details are still eerily similar. That's all I wanted to express.

I wasn't trying to make light of mental illness, but I have to once again suggest that if this woman was mentally ill, then a huge chunk of the country is as well, probably more than a third of the voting public. Her views, no matter how ridiculous they were, could pretty much be taken directly from the RNC's website. I think if universal mental health coverage were actually to do some good in this regard, I'd think that conservatism would need to be declared a mental illness. This may or may not be the case (perhaps it's more likely than not), but I don't know how many people would trust the government to make that call.

coming from someone who IS qualified to diagnose dementia (there's no such thing as "paranoid dementia" -- there most certainly can be symptoms of paranoia when someone is demented -- you're right, it's a common symptom).

Lots of people who watch Fox news think like this woman -- there doesn't need to be any kind of dementia involved. And there doesn't need to be any kind of "mental illness" involved. All kinds of pejorative qualities can be attributed to people who watch & believe Fox news, most of them accurate. But "mental illness" isn't necessarily one of those qualities. Ignorance, stupidity and a whole host of associated qualities are more accurately applied -- you really pretty much have to be those things to consistently watch this idiocy, believe it and vote against your own best interests due to the influence of the Foxes, Limbaughs, Hannities, etc.

in this country.

I hope we can agree on this point.

with a mentally ill mother... my life was forever tainted by her abuse of me... I advocate the same as you!

mentally ill mother.

a lifetime of recovery.

'nuff said

My mother never let me forget that I was an unwanted child.

who support the notion that comprehensive mental health care and medical care are not government's concern and only socialists want to take care of the people are responsible for there being no comprehensive mental health care so they are responsible for this death and hundreds of others.

Hate is a vicious cycle, ain't it.

I get it

Lifelong JFK type democrat.

Really got into CNN in the late 80s with the Ollie North stuff.

First veer toward that end of things though she hated Reagen deeply.

In the late 90s, she went from CNN to Faux.

I was eating lunch with her during the Bush reelection campaign.

She was so disgusted with democrats because of Howard Dean, and that horrible scream.

As she got older and her mind got less focused, they sucked her in.

Fear of death panels. I tried to convince her to do a living will about a year before she died. She didn't, because she bought into the whole RW propaganda that talking to her doctor about such a thing constituted a death panel.

Less than a year later, she was diagnosed with cancer. While in the hospital, the doctors didn't have a clear idea about what extraordinary measures they were authorized to take because she hadn't stated them. She had bouts of delusion. During a period of lucidity, she sat with a representative of the hospital and told them she wanted everything possible done to extend her life. That caused the kind of problems one would expect to arise when you make such heavy decisions during a brief moment of lucidity, rather than years in advance when you're in decent health.

When she passed away, the family was left to pick up the pieces, and the inevitable turf war ensued about who best knew what mom wanted done after she died. I left it to my Republican siblings to argue among themselves about things, as they were all back home and I was out in CA.

then would that not be MURder?

wouldn't it be subject to a lethal injection?

understandable mistake.

Rupert Murder -- works for me!

Yes, FOX is responsible for telling lies and they are responsible when people believe them. But, it is more complicated than that as some have eluded to. We don't have adaqute means to take care of the mentally ill. We sure don't have the means to take care of roughly 25% that are struggling with a serious mental illness even though some appear to be highly functioning. Reagan cut a lot of mental health services and I believe this is making a bad problem even worse, I don't know how bad it has to be before the public has had enough and says hey, put people in institutions until they are well enough to function at least. So, even if you mom had been diagnosed with some kind of mental illness, there is no authority that could make her get treatment. I think that is the other problem, we don't have enough vested in making sure people are mentally healthy and as we see here the results can be deadly if an orgainization fans the flames of delusions of mentally ill people.

literally nowhere for us to turn - no mental health services at our local hospital and no doctors even willing to see him. It was a nightmare we endured for several months until he had a heart attack and passed away.

It's criminal that we have the money to send our military overseas on all sorts of nation building crap, but we have no money to help our most vulnerable citizens here at home.

started with the death panels.

Did Obama ever give an address in which he laid out, point by point, what the health bill does and does not do? I realize FAUX News and the R's have grabbed the issue, constructed a pack of lies, and run with it, but there must be something more the voices of reason could do to reassure people that Obama isn't out to kill them.

Those who scream the loudest for the repeal of the bill have no clue what's actually in it, and that's dangerous.

bunch of sociopaths

Someone should send it to Sarah Palin. As if she would care.

Some on the left used propaganda like "catfood commissions."