If your depression is indeed low thyroid, that's one of the very easiest things to fix, and that in turn fixes loads of other stuff. And if you can persuade 'em to prescribe natural desiccated thyroid instead of or in addition to synth, that's usually better (not always. But I definitely do better on NDT.)

Yeah, the spay/neuter craze has done dogs no good. (In most of Europe it's considered mutilation, and in some countries is even illegal, but that's changing -- not for the better.) Cancer rates skyrocket (four times higher in some breeds). Other health issues that increase significantly: temperament issues, especially fearfulness and inappropriate aggression. Joint disorders, notably ACL and hip dysplasia. Immune issues including fatal blood disorders.

A good overview:
http://speakingforspot.com/blo...

another, with numerous citations:
http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs...

a few studies I happen to have bookmarked:

http://journals.plos.org/ploso...

http://avmajournals.avma.org/d...

a vet's rant:
http://www.angryvet.com/neuter...

Unwanted puppies? There's an ancient invention that adequately covers that problem. They use it in Europe. It's called a leash.

Be well. I'd miss you. :)

Forgot to mention -- spaying/neutering in dogs causes hypothyroidism in a significant percentage of individuals (up to 20% depending on which stats you look at).

34. Milne KL, Hayes HM Jr. Epidemiologic features of canine hypothyroidism. Cornell Vet. 1981;71:3-14.
35. Panciera DL. Hypothyroidism in dogs: 66 cases (1987-1992). JAVMA 1994;204:761-7.

I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is commonly not well understood by general practitioners (to the point of doing exactly the wrong thing for the patient's welfare, because that makes the numbers look good, but leads to immune attacks on not only the thyroid gland, but also sometimes the eyes and other organs). In sheer self-defense, I've had to become an expert, mainly by reading the Journal of Endocrinology.

Removal of the testes is going to affect thyroid production, tho that's something I haven't looked into. If thyroid proves normal, you might ask about slightly increasing your testosterone (females need this too) and/or estrogen intake, or progesterone (which is a mood elevator in some people). Your TG hormone cocktail isn't going to be quite stable if the thyroid isn't right, either.

Low thyroid can affect just about everything. If your depression is at all alleviated by eating, that's a strong redflag, since the food serves to improve blood sugar (albeit temporarily) when thyroid is not doing the job.

https://soylentnews.org/commen...

and that was just what I could recall at that moment; about a dozen more came to mind later, like constipation, chest pain in the region of the heart, mild palsy, loss of coordination, and vertigo.

Also, thyroid production trails off with age... a great many "problems of aging" go away with thyroid replacement, but it is seldom done for that sort of patient. A lot of elderly are suffering needlessly as a result.

My notion of exile is closer to Botany Bay than Escape From New York. Exile shouldn't be prison by another name; rather, a chance to start fresh, maybe in a harsh place but where one can build for the better and not be that second class citizen who is always compared to the non-felons and has NO chance to get past that. But we no longer have available that unclaimed land with the potential to be made into something more, and where 'escape' isn't an issue (cuz you don't want 'em 'going over the wall' either; indeed, ideally they should not want to do so).

I don't think most Americans are any more comfortable with unending punishment than the rest of the world (in my observation, it's more the reverse), but we have a more prominent media machine that thrives on emphasizing the extremes, and a political process that tends to reflect extremes more than norms.

BTW I took a notion to check your journal... and for heaven's sake get a full thyroid panel (not just TSH, which by itself can be extremely misleading) and it needs to be done in the depths of depression, not when you're feeling fine. Undiagnosed or borderline hypothyroid is a major cause of unexplained depression, especially when accompanied by malaise and brain fog. There might not be ANY other symptoms. -- There's also a relationship between TSH and blood glucose.

That's kinda how I see it. I'm not against the death penalty; I'm against making irreparable mistakes. And if it were rare?? ... but it's not; wrongful convictions hover around 30%.

However, I don't see prison as the answer either. In my view, there are four valid punishments:

Death
Reparation
Exile
Forgiveness

Tho barring Antarctica and perhaps the moon, we've kinda run out of places to exile people.

One suspects that were the War On Drugs abolished, its financial structure would collapse, thus pulling the rug out from under the violent subculture cuz now there'd be no money in it. But so long as it's profitable, it will continue (both the war and the subculture).

It's been pointed out that two of the primary lobbyists for "tough on drugs" laws are the for-profit prison industry, and foreign 'drug lords'.

I know someone who had hired several ex-cons under such a program, sincerely hoping to help them get a new start. Had no luck with any of them, and the last two robbed her facility of restricted drugs (she was a veterinarian) and when they were caught selling the stolen drugs, SHE is the one who lost her license and (after fighting the ruling for a couple years) eventually lost her business entirely -- for "allowing" restricted drugs to be distributed without a prescription, even tho she was the one robbed and wronged here. In fact she narrowly avoided prosecution (losing her license was part of the deal).

This might not have happened in a state with a more-rational regulatory system and a less-predatory court system, but this was California.

Strange stat: the first five TG'd people I ever heard of (and I knew two of 'em) were all named Larry in their first life. Two were airline pilots. Clearly there's a correlation here. ;)

(Come to mention it, two took Samantha as their new name. Another correlation! ;)

I figure the pronoun follows from the person. If the person changes, so does the pronoun.

Or maybe we can stop putting people in jail for trivial shit like selling pot. THAT is why we have this 'prison-industrial complex' in the first place -- because the War On Drugs generates a never-ending income stream by providing lots of low-risk, low-maintenance, highly-profitable prisoners (vs. actual violent criminals who are not nearly so profitable). I vaguely recall that about half of our prison population is there for drug-related offenses. I would guess that a disproportionate number of these nonviolent offenders are incarcerated at for-profit facilities. (I base that on reading about one for-profit prison's contract that didn't allow violent offenders at all.)

At any rate, I have mixed feelings about teaching a skill that can so readily be used to rob or bring down someone else, but it sure beats coming out of prison worse people and more socially-useless than they went in (as is so often the case right now).

Financially, I don't see that *any* kind of job training is going to trump selling drugs, not so long as prohibition keeps prices artificially high. So maybe the upside is that this will help those who have no marketable skills but really want a legal job to rise above that, even if it means taking a pay cut (compared to selling drugs).

If you talk to average people on the street, you'll find that a significant fraction, perhaps even a majority ARE riled up -- but don't know what to do about it. I certainly don't have a plan for halting, let alone reversing surveillance creep -- do you??

The best I can do from here is to vote for pro-privacy and small-government candidates. Small government is important here -- when it's small and preferably a bit under-funded, it doesn't have the resources to waste on watching average Americans (nor on crap like the War On Drugs, which I think is basically the same issue with a different approach).

I would say rather that SCOTUS has saved us from much abuse by the majority, but that their reading of the Constitution is not sufficiently strict -- itself a hazard of considering it a "living document" as the other reply contends. But I say if its meaning can be changed, then its meaning can become anything, depending on the whims of tomorrow's interpretation.

That's very interesting. Thanks for the information. I wasn't aware of the Congressional Record method of exposing classified documents.

One wonders if this clause might also explain some of the blatantly unconstitutional legislation that's occasionally introduced (since it's been suggested elsewhere that such an action should be punishable by law).

Probably due to the difference between young eyes and older eyes. Aging lenses tend to filter out the blue end (as people who have cataract surgery suddenly discover).

Including credits and such:

Dr.Zhivago: 192 or 200 minutes depending on version

Gone With the Wind -- 238 minutes
(also usually shown with an intermission)

I don't know of any longer films, but I'm not a film buff.