Holy cow! Beautiful and smart and well written! Very nice to see another lovely conservative lady aboard.

There’s never been a problem so bad in your life, that alcohol couldn’t make worse. I won that battle in 1993.

I’m pretty much in agreement with you on this one, woody other than there’s been a real uptick of women teachers with their students. I don’t dispute that statutory rape is underreported as well. I really don’t know the ratio or percentages that go unreported or so I won’t dispute what you’ve presented. I will say, my ex wife and I were together for 30 years and she told me awful and depressing stories of being sexually molested as a preteen, starting at around 9 yrs old by a female teenaged cousin, that lasted about 5 years. I am saddened by the way our youth both boys and girls are treated. Thanks for posting this and reminding us of this societal evil and that we should be watching out for vulnerable children.

As a resident of the state of Illinois, about the only thing that happens here politically that I wish certain other states would follow along with is putting their governors in prison. Here’s looking at you, Oregon.

That was a fascinating read. Thank you for sharing your insight and thoughts.

I hope so.

I get you, brother. Everyone is different. I was lucky enough to define the root cause and distance myself from it. I’m still struggling to get motivated to do stuff I used to love but it’s coming back. My garden has always been therapy for me. I may eventually pick up my guitar again. Right now I’m ok with coming home from work and going for a long walk and enjoying a quiet house. It’s always in the background and sometimes it’s still overwhelming but it’s not beating me anymore. Pm me if you want to talk more.

I think I know why he never said anything. You don’t want to draw other people into your misery. You pull you metaphorical fences in tight so you don’t put your malaise onto anyone else. The Dr I talked to at work actually came to me and made me talk to her. Her job there is to work with ptsd veterans and she caught on to me pretty quick. I’m not a military vet but she said it was a very similar issue. She still has me swing by her office and talk some mornings. My basis for my depression had little to do with the economy or my income or lack there of. I care very little for material things. I live out in the country and am fairly self sufficient. I am glad for the strong economy, don’t get me wrong, but this is Illinois so as far as the state goes we are still basically screwed. I do appreciate the support tho. Some of you guys are good people that I’d like to meet someday.

Thank you.

I don’t post much on here because it’s mostly depressing and it seems like nobody is really listening to each other anyway, but this is a topic I’m familiar with. I’ve been in clinical depression for the last year or so and am fully aware of the mindset of suicide being a reasonable solution to your current problems. I have trouble putting into words what exactly it feels like when you are thinking about it but there’s a black emptiness in your mind that nothing seems to fill. You can understand cognitively that people care about you but in your head it doesn’t matter. Nothing you do matters. Nothing you do will ever be good enough for people around you. You can keep smiling and make people think everything is fine but you just want to break off contact and be alone. When you try to talk to people about how you feel you either get blown off or they tell you to “cheer up” like it’s a switch you can turn on or off. I was going through my divorce on top of everything else and didn’t have anybody to go to other than a coworker who happened to be a psychologist. She might have saved my life. I don’t know. There was actually a person on this site that helped more than they know. They reached out to me in a pm and was tremendously encouraging. You get to a point where you feel nothing. No anger, no joy nothing. This is worse than pain. I have recovered greatly but I will just say I kind of understand where some of these people were coming from who chose to take that step. Again I appreciate you who were supporting me. You don’t even know sometimes who is hurting. I’m trying to be kind to everyone I meet just because I don’t want to add to their pain. Sometimes you can’t see it. That’s all. Sorry to ramble.

I have a nice full beard. Partially because it hides some burn scars on my chin and mostly because I like it and I don’t like shaving.

As a Scotsman, I deeply appreciate this one. Very nice!😆

You should read the book Eco-S**m by Ron Bailey. It accurately sums up c*****e c****e and the people shoving it at us.

I’m starting to think you might not be a fan of President Trump.

It’ll be time for fishing before you know it. I just confirmed access to a private strip mine lake that’s overflowing with gigantic panfish and bass. It’ll be a good year for me. I’m looking forward to your fishing report, Permi