Bunny Trails

[Ken]

Being a man is hard.

Yes. Thanks for saying it.

i admit, my view is not from insight, but from loss. losses.
husband, father, brother, grandfathers. uncles. brother in law. pastor. employers. friends. God designs us to carry on. He provides. but there is no substitute for what is missing.

Life can be hard for everyone, men and women.

But the suicide rate for men in the US is 3-4 times higher than for women. Which doesn't necessarily mean that men have it harder. But more likely means that men are less good at coping with adversity than women.

[RZehr]

Being a man is hard.

Yes. Thanks for saying it.

i admit, my view is not from insight, but from loss. losses.
husband, father, brother, grandfathers. uncles. brother in law. pastor. employers. friends. God designs us to carry on. He provides. but there is no substitute for what is missing.

Life can be hard for everyone, men and women.

But the suicide rate for men in the US is 3-4 times higher than for women. Which doesn't necessarily mean that men have it harder. But more likely means that men are less good at coping with adversity than women.

Wait. The elevated suicide rates for LGBTQ is indicative of their hard life, but for men it just means that women are better at dealing with adversity? I see.

[Soloist]

Yes. Thanks for saying it.

i admit, my view is not from insight, but from loss. losses.
husband, father, brother, grandfathers. uncles. brother in law. pastor. employers. friends. God designs us to carry on. He provides. but there is no substitute for what is missing.

Life can be hard for everyone, men and women.

But the suicide rate for men in the US is 3-4 times higher than for women. Which doesn't necessarily mean that men have it harder. But more likely means that men are less good at coping with adversity than women.

Wait. The elevated suicide rates for LGBTQ is indicative of their hard life, but for men it just means that women are better at dealing with adversity? I see.

Yeah from what I’ve always heard women make suicide attempts, men commit suicide.

Also, women have “documented” much higher rates of mood disorders, but it’s well known that men underreport mental health issues.

[temporal1]

Being a man is hard.

Yes. Thanks for saying it.

i admit, my view is not from insight, but from loss. losses.
husband, father, brother, grandfathers. uncles. brother in law. pastor. employers. friends. God designs us to carry on. He provides. but there is no substitute for what is missing.

i believe there are those present who understand my thoughts here.
interesting-enough, of all the losses my family has suffered, none were from suicide/attempted suicide, i’m grateful to be able to say.

i began learning about the special place males hold at about 10, when my grandfather died suddenly.
over years, i witnessed the ongoing loss it made on a big family, he left 9 adult children, many grandchildren .. our vibrant, busy family survived, but never the same. years later, my siblings and cousins have remarked similarly.

each one leaves a hole. scar tissue forms around the hole, but the hole remains.

i wonder if, as a culture, we could somehow convey to young boys+teens how important and special they are, HOW MUCH THEY ARE NEEDED, if this would help them resist lots of temptations that harm themselves and others? humans have a God-given sense of social responsibility that should be valued+nurtured. a TON of sin is resisted just because the potential sinner realizes his sin will harm his loved ones, and this price is too high. people who don’t value themselves more easily fall into sins+crimes.

when i think of so many men in prisons, i’m sad, all those men are needed in productive society.
it’s a failure+waste. not God’s plan.

[Robert]

it’s well known that men underreport mental health issues.

Why did you look directly at me when you said that?

[steve-in-kville]

Yes. Thanks for saying it.

i admit, my view is not from insight, but from loss. losses.
husband, father, brother, grandfathers. uncles. brother in law. pastor. employers. friends. God designs us to carry on. He provides. but there is no substitute for what is missing.

Life can be hard for everyone, men and women.

But the suicide rate for men in the US is 3-4 times higher than for women. Which doesn't necessarily mean that men have it harder. But more likely means that men are less good at coping with adversity than women.

Wait. The elevated suicide rates for LGBTQ is indicative of their hard life, but for men it just means that women are better at dealing with adversity? I see.

And we lose 22 combat vets a day to suicide (on average). They had it hard, too.

Just sayin'.

[Josh]

Their justification is part of the “elastic clause “, necessary and proper. In the judgment of generations of courts, they have been found constitutionally appropriate.

It seems like a “clause” one can drive a truck through, where every single thing ends up subject to federal jurisdiction, which is very much the opposite of what we know the intent of the framers was.

There was considerable debate there. Jefferson’s ideas largely lost out.

Yes, and now we have a gargantuan federal government with a gargantuan national debt, with a completely unsustainable future.

[Jazman]

It seems like a “clause” one can drive a truck through, where every single thing ends up subject to federal jurisdiction, which is very much the opposite of what we know the intent of the framers was.

There was considerable debate there. Jefferson’s ideas largely lost out.

Yes, and now we have a gargantuan federal government with a gargantuan national debt, with a completely unsustainable future.

There's some truth in that, but, if the far right got its rhetorical way... ie shut down, gut, corrupt the departments and agencies they complain about... well the unintended consequences of that would also be unsustainable...
Conservative prudence and good character would incrementally work to improve the different agencies and areas of governance.

[Ken]

It seems like a “clause” one can drive a truck through, where every single thing ends up subject to federal jurisdiction, which is very much the opposite of what we know the intent of the framers was.

There was considerable debate there. Jefferson’s ideas largely lost out.

Yes, and now we have a gargantuan federal government with a gargantuan national debt, with a completely unsustainable future.

In the past 70 years, it is state and local government that has grown the most, not the Federal government. Which is what I thought you actually wanted to see. In fact, as a percentage of the population it is the Federal government that has shrunk in the past 50 years. This is from the Cato Institute

[Josh]

You and I both know a great deal of those state and local positions are funded by and controlled by federal grants.