By Nicholas Stix
I confess that I still cling to the habit of reading articles right-side up, even though I know better. Kathy Shaidle’s rule to read them upside-down is counter-intuitive, which is why I only honor it in the breach, but it is nonetheless correct. However, racist, censorious editors are increasingly nullifying her rule.
Take the Chicago Tribune’s Gerould W. Kern. Please.
Kern has long been on the warpath to not only cleanse race-related articles of race-related information, but to silence those readers who do the job that he refuses to do, even though he gets paid handsomely for it.
If you read the article below upside-down shortly after it appeared on line, you would have read the following four comments.
3 comments
Bill Pulk • Top Commenter
HELL WHY GO TO ALL THAT EXPENSE TO FIND OUT WHAT HIS PROBLEM IS. 1ST, HE IS A SPAWN OF THE DROPPINGS OF HIS FETID PHONY {DA REV} FATHER. NEXT HE HAS THE DREADED DISEASE AND FEAR OF FEDERAL INDICTMENT, THAT WOULD EVEN MAKE THE INDIAN CHIEF "CRAZY HORSE" EVEN CRAZIER, NEXT HIS WIFE, WHO EVER SHE IS , IS ON HIS CASE THAT HE MIGHT HAVE PASSED ON SOME SOCIETAL DISEASE FROM HIS SLEEP OVER FRIENDS. THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF APPLES HANGING ON THIS BUMS TREE, BUT YOU TAKE A BITE, AND THEY ALL TASTE THE SAME. THE QUICKER HE FALLS THE BETTER OFF FOR CHICAGO AND THE NATION. NOW IF WE CAN CONVINCE JESSE AND HIS SHOWER PARTNER ANAL AL TO JOIN HANDS AND TAKE HE PLUNGE, WHAT A FINE START THAT WOULD BE FOR AMERICA. 2 PARASITES LESS TO THINK ABOUT. CIAO
Paul Holba • Top Commenter • Louisville, Kentucky
Typical Democratic BS smoke screen - could have just told the truth first off but NOPE had to lie and deceive the voters and overall general public!!
Randy Atut • Top Commenter • Berwyn, Illinois
sounds like someone is gearing up to use the good old insanity defense when the time comes. and it is coming.
Patrick Patterson • Willowbrook High School
If he gets voted in this fall, those that did it have Bypolar too.
He's just hidin' from the feds cuz they're comin' for him. Just look at the video of him in an interview the day they got Blago. Fear like he saw a ghost!
Gerould W. Kern’s censors have since not only deleted all of the comments, but even removed the link for readers to comment!
Jackson has bipolar disorder
Congressman being treated for milder form of the mental illness, Mayo Clinic says
By Katherine Skiba and Deborah L. Shelton
August 14, 2012
Chicago Tribune
The Mayo Clinic on Monday announced that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has bipolar disorder, the clearest indication so far of what's kept the veteran South Side lawmaker on medical leave and out of the public eye for more than two months.
But Jackson's family, staff members and the clinic would not discuss a timetable on the congressman's return to work or specifics of his treatment. Jackson, 47, is up for re-election Nov. 6.
The official diagnosis follows weeks of evolving information on the Democratic congressman's condition, which was first described as "exhaustion," then "physical and emotional ailments" and later a "mood disorder." When Jackson transferred from an Arizona treatment facility to Mayo in Rochester, Minn., in late July, the clinic cited "depression and gastrointestinal issues."
On Monday, medical officials said Jackson has bipolar II depression, the milder form of a mental illness once referred to as manic depression. The more severe form of bipolar disorder affects about 1 to 2 percent of the population. That percentage goes up — to about 5 percent — if you count people with the milder form and those who show some symptoms of bipolar disorder but do not fit the diagnostic criteria.
The condition is diagnosed as either bipolar I or II disorder. The second type is considered the milder form.
Those with the more severe form can have episodes of mania — excessive agitation or extreme euphoria — that last for long periods, said Dr. Daniel Yohanna, vice chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at University of Chicago Medicine. In some cases the person can become psychotic. Those episodes often result in hospitalization.
With the second type — the type that Jackson has — the person might experience similar but less severe symptoms, such as being overly talkative, having feelings of grandiosity and not feeling the need for sleep, Yohanna said. Those episodes are referred to as hypomania.
People with either type of the disorder experience depression, which can be debilitating at its worst. They typically alternate among periods of normal mood, depression and either mania or hypomania.
Those who are experiencing hypomania can "feel good, energetic and productive and may not know there's a problem," said Dr. Michael Ziffra, assistant professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. He said hypomania can lead to risky behaviors, such as sexual promiscuity, excessive spending and fighting.
"What's happening in the brain with bipolar disorder is more complicated than with regular major depression," Ziffra said. "With depression, we have identified certain neurotransmitters that definitely seem to be playing a role. With bipolar disorder, it appears to be more complex. You can't say it's one neurotransmitter or region of the brain."
Doctors believe that people who have the illness are born with a genetic predisposition for it. But environmental and other factors also appear to play a role.
"It certainly has a genetic component," Yohanna said. "But that by no means accounts for everyone who gets it. Genetics accounts for only about 30 to 40 percent of the variability of getting the disease, so it isn't completely genetic. There are other environmental and other factors we don't understand."
Most people become symptomatic during their teens or 20s, Ziffra said. Some people start having symptoms even earlier, but it's not unusual to be diagnosed later in adulthood, he said.
With the less severe type, it is possible to go many years not seeking treatment, or seeking treatment and not being diagnosed properly, he said.
If Jackson's disorder did not become serious until his 40s, it might suggest that it's a less severe form that will respond well to treatment, said Dr. Johnny Williamson, a psychiatrist at Community Counseling Centers of Chicago.
"The most severe forms usually start much earlier in life," he said. "To reach this level of life before he was diagnosed may be a positive indicator."
The Mayo statement Monday said that "Jackson is responding well to the treatment and regaining his strength."
Treatment for bipolar disorder involves psychotherapy — "talk therapy" — and medication such as Depakote or lithium, both of which fall into a class of drugs called mood stabilizers, Yohanna said. Medicines called antipsychotics also can be prescribed to stabilize mood, Ziffra said.
Most people with the type that Jackson has function well after being treated, Ziffra said.
The Mayo statement noted that Jackson underwent weight loss surgery, a duodenal switch, in 2004, and that such surgery "can change how the body absorbs food, liquids, vitamins, nutrients and medications." Mayo spokeswoman Traci Klein declined to comment on whether medical professionals believe there is a link between Jackson's gastrointestinal surgery and his bipolar condition.
Ziffra said that though weight loss surgery doesn't cause bipolar disorder, a major medical procedure could cause stress that exacerbates bipolar symptoms.
"From my own personal experience, I have seen a number of individuals who develop psychiatric issues after weight loss surgery," he said. "I'm not sure what the correlation is. Going through surgery and making a lot of lifestyle adjustments are certainly psychosocial stressors."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and the congressman's father, had no comment Monday. Frank Watkins, a spokesman for Rep. Jackson, said he had no details beyond the Mayo statement. Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson, the lawmaker's wife, was unavailable for comment.
Some high-profile lawmakers have acknowledged suffering from mental illnesses.
When Sen. Thomas Eagleton, D-Mo., disclosed in 1972 that his depression had been treated with electroshock therapy, he was abandoned as George McGovern's vice presidential pick.
Years later, Michigan's Lynn Nancy Rivers, during the late stages of her first run for Congress in 1994, "made a controversial disclosure, admitting her 20-year battle with bipolar depression," according to the Women in Congress website.
"Though most politicians avoided discussing mental health problems for fear of drops in the polls, Rivers, who was on medication to control the disorder, accepted the risk," the website said.
Rivers, a Democrat, won four terms altogether, leaving the House in 2003 after losing a primary. She once said: "It's very easy for members of Congress to be advocates for mental health treatment. It's hard for members of Congress to admit being consumers of mental health treatment."
Among other politicians in recent decades who battled mental illness were U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Florida's Lawton Chiles, a Democrat who suffered from depression but represented his state in the U.S. Senate from 1971 to 1989 and later won election to two terms as governor. Kennedy is out of Congress and serves as an advocate on mental health issues. Chiles died in 1998.
Jackson, who won the Democratic primary in March, is running for re-election Nov. 6 against nominal opposition.
He is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over alleged improprieties connected to his bid to win appointment to President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat in 2008. Jackson sought the appointment from then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, now in a federal prison in Colorado for crimes including trying to sell or trade the seat.
State Sen. Emil Jones III, who represents the South Side and southwest suburbs, responded to the Jackson news Monday by saying he understands that public service "can be very stressful at times and maybe cause different disorders."
"This has been going on since early June, when he took the medical leave," Jones said. "I was a little relieved today to find out that this is treatable and it's not life-threatening. I am wishing that he gets better soon and gets back to work."
kskiba@tribune.com
dshelton@tribune.com
[Previously, on the Jackson crime family, at WEJB/NSU:
Part I: Jesse Jackson on How to Steal a Presidential Election, and Live Happily Ever After;
Part II: “Whose Rights? Our Rights!”;
Part III: “Gettin’ Paid”; and
“A Chip Off the Old Block: Jackson Family Values, Part IV.”]
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