The idiots aired a new episode of "Fringe" last night, and now the buzz is all around about how its audience share supposedly went down even though it wasn't listed in any of the programming guides, and despite there having been no World Series Game 7, anyone with an ounce of sense would have figured that they would air a repeat of the show, or of something else, since no one was expecting a new episode of the show last night. Morons.
Fringe audience falls, FlashForward fades
>>Even on 24, where they had Haysbert (as President Palmer) executed, the Islamic Fundies were the good guys last year.<<
I don't watch "24", but seriously --once they added that Jerk Brannon Braga to their writing staff was there really any doubt that's the direction they would have moved toward? Let's not forget, he has a reputation to protect and has to stay in good with the rest of his Hollywood leftist brethren after all.
I didn't see that documentary with Haysbert that you mentioned by the way.
>> Major Hasan is said to be a victim of PTSD (even though he never saw combat) <<
First hand combat experience is not the only source of PTSD. While I am not qualified to make a diagnosis, and especially not on mere anecdotal information, I daresay that a credible case could be made for the effects on a psychiatrist of listening to, and trying to deal with, the "demons", graphically described by dozens or hundreds of soldiers who did have first hand and bloody combat experiences.
I make this comment not to grant a "free pass" to this individual, but to take exception with the implied notion that, without combat experience, one could not suffer PTSD.
Best regards, 4merCL
UPDATE: First air date on Discover Channel is December 15, 2004 Discovery Channel Completes Film Documentary about Bikini Atoll Article and Photos by Jack Niedenthal, Bikini Atoll Liaison/Dive Program Manager Evergreen Films, on behalf of the Discovery Channel, completed their film project on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands during the week of June 9 to 16, 2004. The film will feature Dennis Haysbert, who is the star of the popular television show on Fox Network, "24," where he plays the first black President of the United States. Haysbert is the first movie star ever to visit and dive Bikini Atoll. About Bikini Haysbert said, "I saw sites that I will remember the rest of my life, and met the most amazing people: the Bikinians themselves. I had a wonderful time." Under the direction of Pierre De Lespinois, world renowned underwater cinema photographers Howard Hall and Bob Cranston filmed the action at depths of up to 170 feet on the USS Saratoga and the HIJMS Nagato with the help of the Bikini Atoll Divers team led by head divemaster Tim Williams and assistant divemaster Jim Akroyd. Said De Lespinois about his experience on Bikini, "Not only was the diving unbelievable and the wrecks beyond description, the Bikini Atoll Divers team members were some of the most professional and skilled that I've encountered in the diving world." The show will also feature scenes from the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, which is rarely dived upon. The team had to receive special permission from the US Park Service to perform these dives. The hour-long show should air around December of 2004, or possibly early next year. During the shoot Dennis Haysbert broke the record for the deepest dive with a "movie mask," which is a scuba mask that allows you to breathe and talk during a dive. He broke the record by going to 165 feet below the HIJMS Nagato, which is a Japanese battleship that sits upside down on the bottom of Bikini's lagoon and was the floating fortress for Admiral Yamamoto during World War II. The Nagato was sunk by a nuclear blast on Bikini in 1946. The previous record for wearing a movie mask underwater was 100 feet. The risk of diving too deep with a movie mask on is the potentially dangerous build-up of carbon dioxide. Expert diver Peter Kragh and Bikini divemaster Jon Salas assisted actor Haysbert throughout the week during his dives on the Saratoga and the Nagato.
4mer >> >>I make this comment not to grant a "free pass" to this individual<<Tom >> I think that's exactly what you are trying to do. <<
And I think it highly presumptious of you to suggest that you have a better knowledge of my motivations than I myself.
My thoughts, as I posted, were directed at recognition that various mental disorders, including PTSD, could affect a larger population than is commonly recognized -- and that, therefore, prudence might call for an alertness to that possibility with respect even to individuals who might otherwise have been summarily overlooked because they did not have the particular first-hand experience that is most often associated.
IOW, I was seeking avoidance, if possible, of some future incident -- not an excuse of the past.
Scott Mendelson, M.D.Author of Beyond Alzheimer's (http://BeyondAlzheimersBook.com)Posted: November 9, 2009 02:03 PMI am a psychiatrist and I work at the Roseburg VA hospital in Roseburg, Oregon. Every day, I treat combat veterans, many of whom suffer Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Following the news of the horrific acts of violence performed by Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, there has been a great deal of discussion about how mental health providers might themselves be affected by treating soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering PTSD. It has been suggested that Dr. Hasan's behavior may have arisen from a "nervous breakdown" he suffered due to the stress of treating so many young soldiers returning from war. Phrases such as "secondary" or "vicarious" PTSD are being tossed around. This is the notion that seeing how war has ravaged the bodies of young soldiers, witnessing their emotional agony, and hearing their descriptions of the horrors of war exposes mental health workers to trauma so severe that they themselves can begin to develop PTSD. Let me be very clear about this, it is no more possible to get PTSD from listening to soldiers tell their tales of their traumatic war experiences than it is to catch gonorrhea from hearing one talk about an unfortunate sexual experience.PTSD develops in a context of extreme fear, emotional intensity, adrenaline release, and a genuine sense that one's life or the life of another is in peril. I have treated soldiers with PTSD who have seen friends blown apart by explosions or disemboweled by machine gun rounds. Many have been wounded or terrified while lying exposed in the midst of a barrage of mortar shells. PTSD can also develop in victims of rape, particularly when threats of violence, torture or death are part of the crime. PTSD can arise after high speed car accidents or house fires that tear and burn flesh and threaten life. It does not occur in true form under other circumstances.There is a condition that can develop when a mental health care provider or anyone else listens to one after another story of horror, pain, and emotional devastation. Some self-serving psychotherapists have tried to make it more than it is by referring to it as Vicarious Stress Disorder, or Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder. Compassion Fatigue is another term bandied about to explain the inability to handle the next difficult case of emotional trauma when litanies of pain and loss are heard day after day. However, while Compassion Fatigue may be useful to explain why charities suffer from loss of contributions during extended runs of natural disasters or prolonged economic downturns, it must not be seen to explain failures of mental health professionals to provide skilled treatment. Although compassion may lead an individual to pursue a career in mental health care, it can never serve as the basis of treatment or be depended upon to sustain interest and capability in practice. The term "burnout" has been used, and may come close to what can occur after months of immersion in a difficult occupation. However, burnout is not unique to psychiatry. Burnout is equally likely to be seen in hair stylists, mechanics, special education teachers and librarians. The answer to burnout is a pleasant vacation, not psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.The best characterization of the condition that arises from treating sufferers of trauma, loss, and pain is, weltschmerz. This word simply means world pain, that is, the wretchedness and despondency one can feel in seeing the misery that existence in this world can bring, particularly in regard to the brutality and the horrors we heap upon one another. As Philip Larkin noted in "This be the verse", his dark ode to weltschmerz, "Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf." None of this is new.If a therapist is already depressed from his or her own life struggles, then being bombarded by endless stories of loss, pain, hopelessness, horror, and despair can certainly exacerbate the emotional distress. It can precipitate Major Depression and anxiety disorders if allowed to progress. This is where training, maintenance of good therapeutic boundaries with patients, and conferencing and mutual support among mental health professionals is so important. Providing care to those with scarred and broken minds can be painful and difficult for even the most experienced professional. However, a well trained psychiatrist or psychologist is not driven into violent frenzy by dealing with the trauma of soldiers, nor do they acquire those soldiers' emotional wounds vicariously. The very notion is an insult not only to mental health professionals, but to the men and woman who have actually experienced the horrors of war and gone on to develop the anxiety, depression, hypervigilence, nightmares, and flashbacks of genuine PTSD. To return to my opening thoughts, I do not think for a moment that Major Hasan's being a psychiatrist had anything whatsoever to do with the despicable acts he committed. Stress from dealing with the emotional trauma of returning soldiers does not explain and certainly does not excuse his behavior.Dr. Mendelson is the author of the new book, Beyond Alzheimer's (http://BeyondAlzheimersBook.com).
