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Ron Paul on Depression

Mandatory Depression Screening is A Depressing Thought

By Ron Paul

February 9, 2016

The United States Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended mandatory depression screening for all Americans. The task force wants to force health insurance companies to pay for the screening. Basic economics, as well as the Obamacare disaster, should have shown this task force that government health insurance mandates harm Americans.

Government health insurance mandates raise the price of health insurance. Consumers will respond to this increase by either choosing to not carry health insurance or by reducing their consumption of other goods and services. Imposing new health insurance mandates will thus make consumers, many of whom are already suffering from Obamacare’s costly mandates, worse off by forcing them to deviate from their preferred consumption patterns.

Mandatory depression screening will not just raise insurance costs. In order to ensure that the screening mandate is being properly implemented, the government will need to create a database containing the results of the screenings. Those anti-gun politicians who want to forbid anyone labeled “mentally ill” from owning a firearm will no doubt want to use this database as a tool to deprive individuals of their Second Amendment rights.

If the preventive task force has its way, Americans could lose their Second Amendment, and possibly other, rights simply because they happened to undergo their mandatory depression screening when they were coping with a loved one’s passing or a divorce, or simply having a bad day. As anyone who has been mistakenly placed on the terrorist watch list can attest, it is very difficult to get off a government database even when the government clearly is in error. Thus, anyone mistakenly labeled as depressed will have to spend a great deal of time and money in what may be a futile attempt to get his rights back.

Mandatory depression screening will endanger people’s health by increasing the use of psychotropic drugs. These drugs often have dangerous side effects. Their use has even been linked to suicide. The fact that almost every mass shooter was on psychotropic drugs is another good reason to oppose any policy that will increase reliance on these medicines.

The Preventive Services Task Force’s mandatory depression screening mandate is based on the fallacy that diagnosing mental health problems is analogous to diagnosing cancer or diabetes. Even mental health professionals acknowledge that there is a great deal of subjectivity in mental health diagnosis.

Consider that until 1973 homosexuality was considered a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. Today, some mental health professionals think that those who believe in limited government, free-market economics, or traditional values suffer from mental disorders. If mandatory depression screening becomes a reality, it is likely this mental health screening will be expanded to cover screening for other mental illnesses. This could result in anyone with an unpopular political belief or lifestyle choice being labeled as “mentally ill.”

Even if mandatory health screening could be implementing without increasing costs or threatening liberty it would still be a bad idea. Government health care mandates undermine the basic principles of a free society. If it is legitimate for government to tell us what types of health care we must receive, then it is also legitimate for the government to tell us what to eat, when to exercise, and even how to raise our children. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, a tyranny imposed for our own good is the worst form of tyranny because it is a tyranny without limits. All who love liberty must therefore oppose mandatory depression screening, or any other health care mandate.

From Lewrockwell.com, here.

Murray Rothbard on Democracy

Authored by: העורך Editor

Here is a fine quote from Murray Rothbard:

… the proponents of government intervention are trapped in a fatal contradiction:

they assume that individuals are not competent to run their own affairs or to hire experts to advise them. And yet they also assume that these same individuals are equipped to vote for these same experts at the ballot box.

We have seen that, on the contrary, while most people have a direct idea and a direct test of their own personal interests on the market, they cannot understand the complex chains of praxeological and philosophical reasoning necessary for a choice of rulers or political policies.

Yet this political sphere of open demagogy is precisely the only one where the mass of individuals are deemed to be competent!

From Mises.org, here.

Open Letter about Meir Ettinger from a Soldier to the Defense Minister

Open Letter about Meir Ettinger from a Soldier to the Defense Minister

BY ON

I am embarrassed to be in an army with you as commander.

BS”D

To Defense Minister, Moshe (Bogie Yaalon),

It was with great pain that I heard about your decision to lengthen the detention of Meir Ettinger. At the same time, I was not surprised. The harassment of those who grow out their payos is but one example of your anti-Jewish behavior. Harming Jews who live on hilltops seems to give you pleasure. So as I said, I did not expect you to act differently. Nonetheless, I am left with a feeling of embarrassment.

I am embarrassed that my grandfather and grandmother lived through the Holocaust with the dream of establishing Jewish sovereignty, that the day has come, and that one of our own has decided to specifically target Jews.

I am embarrassed for the generations upon generations who dreamed of returning to Zion and bringing about the Redemption that you have decided to impede.

I am embarrassed for those whose blood has been spilled in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Gush Etzion, and throughout Israel, who now look down at us and fail to understand why instead of avenging their blood, we are sucking the blood of a Jew who has served the Jewish people his entire life.

I am embarrassed for G-d (who in case you did not know, created you too), in whose Torah we read last week about the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. The Creator of the world did not suffice with taking us out of Egypt, but also demanded that we be His people. And the Midrash states that had we refused, He would have returned the world to chaos. Yes, we are all embarrassed that the wicked are succeeding and that you, in particular, are returning the world to chaos. Sadly, you and your ilk are harassing those who wish to restore G-d’s Kingdom on earth.

We are embarrassed to be citizens in a state that fails to maintain security and that thinks instead of fighting the enemy, it can arrest Jews for ‘thought-crimes.’

We are embarrassed that you and your friends constantly undermine our right to exist in this land and exist as a nation. Through your actions, you are destroying once again the ruins of Jerusalem which the visionaries of a Jewish State worked so hard to rebuild. You are destroying the work of those who understand why we came to the Holyland and more generally, why we came to this world.

It is an embarrassment that a person like Meir, who even if you were to learn with him for many years would still likely not understand all of his Jewish teachings, is suffering at your hand.

And so too, it is an embarrassment for me, as I write these words, to serve in an army with you as commander. There are no doubt many other soldiers in whose name I write, that have lost morale as a result of your actions. We do not want to sacrifice ourselves every day; at the end of the day we are not fighting our enemies, but instead our brothers. From your words it sounds as though the war you want to fight is not one of truth, but merely one that will ‘maintain calm.’ It’s an attempt to calm the winds of change both inside and out, without any desire to move forward and make progress. Part of the war against Meir and his friends is clearly part of a war against Jewish solidarity and consciousness.

Yet on the other hand, perhaps there is nothing to be embarrassed about. I can only be embarrassed for actions or people that I am associated with. You separate yourself from the Jewish people every day. You, yes you, put the lives of your Jewish brothers in danger on the battlefield every day through insane restrictions on opening fire and more. You and the Education Minister prefer to continue transferring funding to the terrorists of the PA while refusing to fund the yeshiva in Yitzhar, where they wear kippahs that are just a little too big for your liking. The time has come for you, who constantly claims that nothing can be done to stop Arab terror, to resign from your post. Make room for those who fear G-d and who want what is best for you even more than you do. Leave your post for people who understand the difference between friends and foes. Let those who understand how G-d commanded us to fight a war, determine how the war will be fought. After all, your failures have shown that you lack such knowledge.

You won’t manage to break Meir and his friends because they have the word of G-d on their side. They are Jews filled with joy, hope, and freedom. They are only strengthened when they see your miserable and pathetic attempts to erase the Torah of G-d, Torat Hamelech (the Torah of the King).

Signed with a heavy Jewish heart,

Menachem

From Hakol Hayehudi, here.

NOTE: We have written against administrative detention elsewhere on the site.