Finally, Obama leads from the front: The Hamas-FAA move against Ben Gurion

By J.E. Dyer- Via Liberty Unyielding-

For whatever reason, the Obama administration wasn’t willing to wait and lead from behind on this one. Within hours of a Hamas rocket landing near Ben Gurion airport – for the first time in the current conflict – the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an order banning U.S. carriers from operating there. As many readers will have heard, a Delta Airlines flight headed for Ben Gurion on Tuesday had to turn around over the Mediterranean and divert to Paris.

The ban is in effect for 24 hours, starting at 12:15 EDT on the 22nd. The ban will be revisited at the end of the 24 hours (which at this point is about 10 hours from now).

A number of European nations have followed suit.

An unjustified political action

Pundits and other advocates have been swift to condemn this U.S. action, a serious measure of economic isolation which will deny Israel millions of dollars in commercial revenues even if it lasts only 24 hours. Eugene Kontorovich points out that the message is prejudicial and the timing is suspicious, with John Kerry heading for Israel to try to broker a ceasefire.

The subtext here is that Israel has a sword at its neck: face a private-sector no-fly zone or agree to a cease-fire that lets Hamas keep its rockets, and thus close Ben Gurion Airport again at the time of its choosing. It is a lose-lose proposition. …

Moreover, the timing of the FAA’s absurd and unjustified warning seems to have more to do with Kerry’s visit to the region to impose a cease-fire on Israel. Until his administration’s flight ban, that effort seemed entirely futile.

The message is unsubtle. “Nice commercial hub you got, there, Bibi. Be a shame if anything happened to it.”

Kontorovich observes further that the FAA would have been more consistent with its policies elsewhere if it had issued a warning rather than imposing a ban. He cites the example of Afghanistan.

I would cite the example of Pakistan, where there have been multiple, very serious attacks on commercial airports in recent months, including an attack on an airliner in Peshawar, this one on the airport in Karachi, and an earlier one involving Taliban rocket fire in Peshawar. In terms of the type of threat posed, the Pakistan Taliban is a fairly exact analogy to what Hamas can threaten Ben Gurion in Lod, Israel with – except that Israel does a much better job of securing Ben Gurion against the Hamas threat. In none of the instances in Pakistan has the FAA banned U.S. carriers from flying in and out of the Pakistani airports. At most, it has issued safety warnings.

Meanwhile, the implication many will propose, about an abundance of caution after the MH17 shootdown over Ukraine, falls apart on inspection. The potential for a Hamas rocket to fall near the airport isn’t the same threat as the one posed by the fully militarized pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The pro-Russian separatists have the weaponry to shoot an airplane out of the sky at altitude – and they had actually done it before the MH17 shootdown. That game-changing condition is not present in Israeli air space.

Ordinarily – as with Pakistan – the U.S. would take such things into account and avoid issuing flight bans against an ally’s airport. As an “abundance of caution,” the flight ban on Ben Gurion is a psychotic one in comparison with the FAA’s use of its judgment elsewhere. See the Special Notices here for the FAA’s ongoing warnings for U.S. carriers about air space in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and North Korea. And note that in spite of the much greater potential threat to commercial aircraft in Syria and Iraq (for example) than in Israel, the prohibitions for U.S. carriers are not absolute in either nation.

The prohibition on Ben Gurion is uniquely stringent, and inconsistent with FAA practices elsewhere. It also had to be approved by Obama. Israel is an ally, one of America’s closest partners in the world. Cutting off her commercial airport from U.S. carriers is inherently a presidential-level decision, and Obama is responsible whether he made it or not.

Cutting the cords of the past

Gatestone Institute suggests that the Hamas-FAA move against Ben Gurion – my formulation; that’s essentially what it is – has effectively eliminated any viable “two-state solution.” Israel can’t tolerate the existence of a neighboring state that can hold the life’s blood of her economy at risk whenever it wishes – especially if Israel’s own chief ally doesn’t back Israel’s interests up, but instead throws in with her enemies.

What Obama has certainly killed with the Hamas-FAA gambit is any prospect of a new “peace agreement,” the Holy Grail pursued with such longing by Kerry. There is no basis for a substantive agreement now. Whatever happens at 12:15 EDT on 23 July, the U.S. has proved itself a faithless ally – or, at best, a worthless one, easily spooked and unprepared to back Israel up in enforcing the rule of law against lawless terrorism.

I continue to predict that Netanyahu will persist with the ground operation in Gaza as long as it takes to seriously degrade Hamas’s terror infrastructure, but ultimately will conclude a ceasefire agreement that effectively resets – for the time being – to the status quo ante. If I had my choice, I would see Israel destroy Hamas completely, this summer. But to insist on that, regardless of consequences, is to misread Israel’s freedom of action.

It is right now, at any rate. I note that Fatah could maneuver for a big gain out of this conflict, if its leadership ceased its weak-hand support of Hamas and shifted to a more cooperative posture with Israel. The glimmer of an interesting possibility, in which Fatah would take control of Gaza under an agreement supervised by Israel and Egypt, is beginning to throw off sparks of obviousness. It would not be a lasting solution, of course. Whether there is time for mindsets in the region to adjust to that kind of interim vision will depend, I think, on how long the IDF ground operation continues.

Ironically for Obama and Kerry, however, what their little Hamas-FAA gambit has done is liberate Israel from the constraints of the Oslo mindset. Whatever the ceasefire arrangement is, it will be temporary. And everyone except Barack Obama and John Kerry will understand that Israel – along with all the other parties – will develop a new goal and a new strategy coming out of this conflict. The likelihood is much stronger than it was three weeks ago that that new goal will not involve a “two-state solution.”

Liberty Unyielding

Denmark – Paradise of Fools

By H. Roland J – Via Punk Rock Libertarian

Denmark – a happy Paradise

I have noticed a lot of well-meaning Americans praising Denmark for our happiness and our welfare system. We’re praised for our free education, free healthcare, free childcare, short workweek and all the other things that the goodness-industry is proclaiming to define us Danes.

Well, think again, please. We are no more happy than Germans, Turks, Americans or any other country in the world. We might just be a little more complacent and have probably fallen prey to the comfort of our concept of ‘Hygge’. We’re not happy; we’re comfortable in our complacency.

Unlike the United States, which is a very young country with a very short history, Denmark is one of the oldest existing nations in the world. You would think the young nation would be full of great, new ideas, but no; some americans look to an old, stagnant nation such as Denmark for guidance.

Nothing is free

“Child- and healthcare is free and students are paid to study in Denmark!”. That’s a line I’ve heard a lot. It’s a truth that needs a lot of modification. A lot!

If by ‘free’ you mean ‘paid for by someone else’ you are right in the assumption that healthcare, childcare and education are almost free of charge.

In order to pay for all this ‘goodness’ the Danes pay a lot of taxes. Not just income tax but tax on everything! In some cases even tax on the taxes, and we have what we call a ‘Nanny-state’. Indeed, the very reason we danes are so happy is because we are constantly under the watchful eye of Mother State. I’ll get back to that later.

You need to understand something about Danes. We were Vikings once. We spend our sparetime seeing the world, making our mark on it and inviting people to come home and live with us. Yeah, we sailed forth, ravaged the world and brought back slaves, but the first version sounds better.

We became rich. Filthy rich. Which is the base of the wealth we have today. We were never conquered by other nations – except for 5 years of World War II – and therefore have had about a thousand years to amass wealth and become complacent in our ways of life.

The people of the United States have a very different history. You are from a lot of different places and your nation of little more than 200 years old. You had a massive Civil War and you act as if you are the “police of the world”. You are constantly at war somewhere in the world – never at home – but you spend an awful lot of money on ‘defending’ yourselves.

Also, there is a lot more Americans in the world than there are Danes. Danes are few in number and the kingdom is very small compared to the United States (if we subtract the vast emptiness of Greenland).

You, as americans, can never be like us Danes; mainly because you’re not even one people. You identify as African-American, Hispanic-American, German-American, Native-American and all sorts of blank-American. In order to have a welfare state, you need to be one people and identify as such.

And you shouldn’t have the welfare state to begin with…

What money can buy

If you want free healthcare, free childcare and free education someone else needs to pay for it. Nothing in the world is free and these things are very expensive. Free stuff never comes cheap and least of all when it comes from the state.

Imagine being an ordinary working class Dane with a monthly salary of 25,000 DKK. That’s about 4,000 USD, but there is a vast difference between our two nations and it is impossible to compare USD as used in Denmark.

First you pay your income tax. This is done automatically because in Denmark we have SKAT (TAX) which handles these things for us. The company you work for registers you with SKAT and by magic this huge part of danish government handles your tax-payment.

Arbejdsmarkedsbidrag – which is impossible for me to translate – is set at 8% – and it’s the first tax you have to pay. 8% of 25,000 DKK is 2,000 DKK, which means you have 23,000 left of your income, and still have taxes to pay. But first, some good news!

We all have our ‘bundfradrag’, which translates into ‘bottom deduction’. It’s a deduction of non-taxed money! You simply don’t pay taxes of this amount! Yay, free money!

In 2015 this Bundfradrag is 41,400 annually. Divided by 12 to get a monthly Bundfradrag makes it 3,433 DKK. Take that away from the amount we had left after the statetax makes it 23,000 minus 3,433.

19.567 DKK left and now we move on to the big taxes. Kommuneskat, or county tax – is different from county to county. In this example I will use the average county-tax which is 24.9%.

So, we’re left with 14,694.81. No rounding up! We still have taxes to pay!

If we in this example made more than 37,000 DKK per month there would be ‘Topskat’ now. Yes, indeed, the more money you make the more taxes you have to pay. Not just percentage-wise, but all the money you make more than 449,100 annually is taxed with yet another 15%!

Luckily we don’t make that much money in this example.

We have yet another tax to pay and they named it Sundhedsskat – or Health-tax! It’s an odd little tax that is lowered by 1% each year while Bottom Tax is raised 1% per year. This year Sundhedsskat is at 4%. We need to pay that too.

We take our income of 19,567 and take 4% off that. Say goodbye to another 782.68. We take that amount from what we are left with which make our entire income of the 25,000 DKK new 13,784.32.

We have paid 11,215.68 or about 44% in income taxes but are we done yet? By no means!

Taxes, taxes, taxes everywhere!

Let’s take our 13,784.32 DKK out of the bank. Let’s pay some bills, shall we?

Every time we pay a bill we must pay the government sales tax. It’s at a staggering 25%! Yes, indeed, everytime you buy anything from your local vendor 20% goes to the government. If something would have cost 20 DKK, like an ice cream or a soda, the government puts on an extra 5 (25% of the price) and takes that money from the vendor, who is nice enough to price it at 25 DKK for us.

He has the hassle of collecting the sales tax on the behalf of the government. He gives it to them quarterly and subtracts what he has paid for things that are sales tax-deductible for companies. Companies are given back the money they spend on stuff they need to run their business once every quarter.

This is of course very confusing, but all the sales taxes end up with the government. So, we pay yet another 25% of our income in indirect sales taxes!

Taxation on Tax

Let’s give that money to the government from our disposable income. That makes our money 10.338 (now we can round up)

There are much more expensive bills to pay, and ‘Afgift’, which is just another word for tax, is used instead of Skat, which means the same.

When you pay your utility bill, you pay a lot in Afgift. I have my most recent eletrical bill on hand. Let’s use that one. It’s says 994.64 DKK for a three month period. Eletricity-Afgift – yes, there is such a thing – is where you pay for the privilege of being able to use electricity in your home.

The Electricity-company charges 111.06 for my use of 358 kiloWatt/Hour and 30 DKK for membership. With sales tax imposed on this it comes to 176.33 dkk.

The eletricity-company charges 0.37 DKK per KiloWatt/Hour, and the state imposes an ‘electricity transportation Afgift’ of 0.21 DKK. According to the eletricity-company I used 358 kWh last period which makes this Afgift 80.89 DKK for the period.

No, we’re not done with the taxation yet. Calm yourself down.

EL-Afgift is the main portion of taxation here. It’s a staggering 0.88 DKK per kWh! That makes it 331.88 DKK in EL-Afgift!

All combined the state takes 412.77, but hey, those numbers don’t add up, now do they? Of course not. There’s more!

When all combined the company gets 241.88 from me every quarter, but this still doesn’t add up. 241.88 plus 412.77 only makes 654.65 DKK and even with the company’s charges (with sales tax) of 176.33 it still only makes 830.98 DKK, doesn’t it?

It would if the government didn’t have the gall to tax the Afgift. The Afgift-ridden amount of 654.65 of course needs a sales tax! Sales tax is different from Afgift and of course no money can change hands unless the state get’s it 20%!

The final bill for three months of electricity lookes like this:

Company charges 141.06 DKK and with sales tax that’s 176.33. The state gets 35.27 DKK from this part of the process.

Now Afgift on transport and use of the state-owned network, Afgift on electricity because it is something we need and want comes to 654.65 and slam! Here comes sales tax on the Afgifts which comes to 163.66.

Confused? Well, I am, so here comes everything a little more simplfied. Out of the 994.64 I paid for electricity the company get’s 141.06 DKK – and the rest, a staggering 853.58 goes to the government. Some of it is Afgift and some of it is even sales tax on Afgift!

I can’t afford to watch TV

Wanna buy a TV in Denmark? Maybe a phone? Maybe a computer for internet access? Want to own a radio? You can, and buying it will, of course, cost you 20% extra in sales tax, but that’s not all.

If you own any device that can pick up a TV- or radio signal or have internet access you have to pay for ‘Licens’! Yes sir, you have to pay a license-fee to own one such device because you have the opportunity to watch or listen to something aired by Danmarks Radio, or DR as it is known.

I know you’re confused here, but DR is a huge government mediacompany that doesn’t operate on market-terms. If you own anything that can pick up DR you have to pay.

As a matter of fact, a representative of Licens-kontoret – The License Office – will come to your door if you’re not registered with them because everyone owns something that can pick up that damn TV-channel, go on the internet or pick up a radiosignal.

The cost for such a license is 205 DKK per month. Yeah, that’s right, you own something and have to pay a fee for it. That’s state logic for you.

I have personally chosen not to own a TV or a radio. My computer actually belongs to my mother and my phone belongs to a close friend of mine. Therefore I do not own anything that needs to be licensed, because I fully reject the notion that I have to pay this license-fee.

When all is said and paid for

Tell me again how everything is free in Denmark? Tell me again, that we are so lucky to have free education, free healthcare, free childcare and free whatnot.

We are paying for it. We pay a lot for it. More than you can ever imagine as an American. I have no idea how much you pay in taxes or what you can deduct from them, but in Denmark – where the people are happy and comfortable – we pay dearly for that.

Not only do you pay in terms of money but also as individuals. The state has taken over our lives by making us believe that we are so well off, that we are free and that we are ever so happy.

This is my advice to Americans who wants ‘free’ this and that, and who are willing to raise taxes to such an extent as we have in Denmark.

Stop. Look at yourself in the mirror. Are you that much better than everyone else? Are you so self-centered that you think taking from others to give to others and yourself is right? Are you the kind of person who is willing to make someone else pay for your life?

If so, I suggest you create a community of your own. It doesn’t have to be somewhere but someone. Find likeminded people who are willing to give up their freedom for this community. Make your own government and impose taxation on that membership.

Just don’t use force to make others pay for your ideal society. You don’t have that right. You don’t have the right to impose your moral values upon others for ‘the greater good’. You, as a people born of the desire for freedom, should understand this.

Your ancestors left their homes to find freedom. Your ancestors fought the War of Indepence to assure that freedom. You had a civil war that was all about freedom. You helped, albeit reluctantly, when freedom was threatened in Europe and Asia during World War II. You still fight for freedom, but rather perversely I might add, but some of you still believe it’s about freedom.

Why would you go back on the very essence of America by taking away freedom from others and forcing them to pay for ‘free’ things? You are going in the direction of Denmark and as shown above that is an expensive route to take. You should go back to freedom, not away from it!

I see The United States as sort of a grandchild of older nations, such as Denmark, who have ‘been there, done that and made the mistakes’. This is of course my very personal view, which is not shared by many danes, but as a true Viking I can only give you one advice.

Don’t give up your freedom for ‘free stuff’. There is no such thing as ‘free’ when it comes to governments. Everything comes at a price and you should never be willing to pay a price that includes your fellow man paying the same price against his will.

Punk Rock Libertarian

Ted Cruz talks Defunding Planned Parenthood and more with Dana Loesch
Press the arrow to play. Audio from the Dana Loesch show.

Please comment, like & share

Abortion procedures – Unveiling “The Choice”

Abortion is such barbaric murder.
It’s really unbelievably vile.
And places like Planned Parenthood should not receive a dime of our tax money.

3,000 babies a day are aborted in the U.S.
Video from Oregon Right To Life.
Press the arrow to play.

Please comment, like & share.

Keeping the people of France in our thoughts. May God bless them and look after them on this dark day.

Pic says it all

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‘Big shakeup’ in Iowa Poll: Cruz soars to lead

Des Moines Register poll of Iowa: Cruz 31, Trump 21, Carson 13, Rubio 10

From HotAir and The Des Moines Register-
Big shakeup,” said J. Ann Selzer, pollster for The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll. “This is a sudden move into a commanding position for Cruz.”

Cruz, a Texas U.S. senator famous for defying party leaders and using government shutdown tactics to hold up funding for the Obamacare health care law and abortion provider Planned Parenthood, was the favorite of 10 percent of likely Republican caucusgoers in the last Iowa Poll in October. He’s now at 31 percent.

Carson’s zenith was 28 percent in the poll two months ago. Trump’s highest support was 23 percent back in August, when he led the field by 5 points.

And there are signs Cruz may not have peaked in Iowa yet. Another 20 percent of likely caucusgoers say he’s their current second choice for president. Cruz hits 51 percent support when first- and second-choice interest is combined, again leading the field.

With Cruz’s popularity and his debate proficiency, “it’s certainly possible that he could win Iowa big — very big,” said Frank Luntz, a Nevada-based GOP focus group guru who follows the Iowa race closely.

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2015/12/12/des-moines-register-poll-of-iowa-cruz-31-trump-21-carson-13-rubio-10/

#DumpTrump #TrusTed #CruzCrew https://t.co/kNzgZCuuAD

— Richard (@CruzinAhead) December 12, 2015

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Cruz 31 – Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IOWA BABY #TCOT #LNYHBT #CCOT #MakeDCListen

— Queen Of Liberty.com (@MercuryOneOC) December 12, 2015

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Via Metanoia

If you are feeling suicidal now, please stop long enough to read this. It will only take about five minutes. I do not want to talk you out of your bad feelings. I am not a therapist or other mental health professional – only someone who knows what it is like to be in pain.

I don’t know who you are, or why you are reading this page. I only know that for the moment, you’re reading it, and that is good. I can assume that you are here because you are troubled and considering ending your life. If it were possible, I would prefer to be there with you at this moment, to sit with you and talk, face to face and heart to heart. But since that is not possible, we will have to make do with this.

I have known a lot of people who have wanted to kill themselves, so I have some small idea of what you might be feeling. I know that you might not be up to reading a long book, so I am going to keep this short. While we are together here for the next five minutes, I have five simple, practical things I would like to share with you. I won’t argue with you about whether you should kill yourself. But I assume that if you are thinking about it, you feel pretty bad.

Well, you’re still reading, and that’s very good. I’d like to ask you to stay with me for the rest of this page. I hope it means that you’re at least a tiny bit unsure, somewhere deep inside, about whether or not you really will end your life. Often people feel that, even in the deepest darkness of despair. Being unsure about dying is okay and normal. The fact that you are still alive at this minute means you are still a little bit unsure. It means that even while you want to die, at the same time some part of you still wants to live. So let’s hang on to that, and keep going for a few more minutes.

Start by considering this statement:

Suicide is not chosen; it happens
when pain exceeds
resources for coping with pain.

That’s all it’s about. You are not a bad person, or crazy, or weak, or flawed, because you feel suicidal. It doesn’t even mean that you really want to die – it only means that you have more pain than you can cope with right now. If I start piling weights on your shoulders, you will eventually collapse if I add enough weights… no matter how much you want to remain standing. Willpower has nothing to do with it. Of course you would cheer yourself up, if you could.

Don’t accept it if someone tells you, “That’s not enough to be suicidal about.” There are many kinds of pain that may lead to suicide. Whether or not the pain is bearable may differ from person to person. What might be bearable to someone else, may not be bearable to you. The point at which the pain becomes unbearable depends on what kinds of coping resources you have. Individuals vary greatly in their capacity to withstand pain.

When pain exceeds pain-coping resources, suicidal feelings are the result. Suicide is neither wrong nor right; it is not a defect of character; it is morally neutral. It is simply an imbalance of pain versus coping resources.

You can survive suicidal feelings if you do either of two things: (1) find a way to reduce your pain, or (2) find a way to increase your coping resources. Both are possible.

Now I want to tell you five things to think about.

1
You need to hear that people do get through this — even people who feel as badly as you are feeling now. Statistically, there is a very good chance that you are going to live. I hope that this information gives you some sense of hope.

2
Give yourself some distance. Say to yourself, “I will wait 24 hours before I do anything.” Or a week. Remember that feelings and actions are two different things – just because you feel like killing yourself, doesn’t mean that you have to actually do it right this minute. Put some distance between your suicidal feelings and suicidal action. Even if it’s just 24 hours. You have already done it for 5 minutes, just by reading this page. You can do it for another 5 minutes by continuing to read this page. Keep going, and realize that while you still feel suicidal, you are not, at this moment, acting on it. That is very encouraging to me, and I hope it is to you.

3
People often turn to suicide because they are seeking relief from pain. Remember that relief is a feeling. And you have to be alive to feel it. You will not feel the relief you so desperately seek, if you are dead.

4
Some people will react badly to your suicidal feelings, either because they are frightened, or angry; they may actually increase your pain instead of helping you, despite their intentions, by saying or doing thoughtless things. You have to understand that their bad reactions are about their fears, not about you.

But there are people out there who can be with you in this horrible time, and will not judge you, or argue with you, or send you to a hospital, or try to talk you out of how badly you feel. They will simply care for you. Find one of them. Now. Use your 24 hours, or your week, and tell someone what’s going on with you. It is okay to ask for help. Try:
•Send an anonymous e-mail to The Samaritans
•Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TTY:1-800-799-4TTY)
•(In Australia, call Lifeline Australia at telephone: 13 11 14
•Teenagers, call Covenant House NineLine, 1-800-999-9999
•Look in the front of your phone book for a crisis line
•Call a psychotherapist
•Carefully choose a friend or a minister or rabbi, someone who is likely to listen

But don’t give yourself the additional burden of trying to deal with this alone. Just talking about how you got to where you are, releases an awful lot of the pressure, and it might be just the additional coping resource you need to regain your balance.

5
Suicidal feelings are, in and of themselves, traumatic. After they subside, you need to continue caring for yourself. Therapy is a really good idea. So are the various self-help groups available both in your community and on the Internet.

Well, it’s been a few minutes and you’re still with me. I’m really glad.

Since you have made it this far, you deserve a reward. I think you should reward yourself by giving yourself a gift. The gift you will give yourself is a coping resource. Remember, back up near the top of the page, I said that the idea is to make sure you have more coping resources than you have pain. So let’s give you another coping resource, or two, or ten…! until they outnumber your sources of pain.

Now, while this page may have given you some small relief, the best coping resource we can give you is another human being to talk with. If you find someone who wants to listen, and tell them how you are feeling and how you got to this point, you will have increased your coping resources by one. Hopefully the first person you choose won’t be the last. There are a lot of people out there who really want to hear from you. It’s time to start looking around for one of them.

Now: I’d like you to call someone.

And while you’re at it, you can still stay with me for a bit. Check out these sources of online help.

Additional things to read at this site:
•
How serious is our condition? …”He only took 15 pills, he wasn’t really serious…” if others are making you feel like you’re just trying to get attention… read this.

•
Why is it so hard for us to recover from being suicidal? …while most suicidal people recover and go on, others struggle with suicidal thoughts and feelings for months or even years. Suicide and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

•
Recovery from grief and loss …has anyone significant in your life recently died? You would be in good company… many suicidal people have recently suffered a loss.

•
The stigma of suicide that prevents suicidal people from recovering: we are not only fighting our own pain, but the pain that others inflict on us… and that we ourselves add to. Stigma is a huge complicating factor in suicidal feelings.

•
Resources about depression …if you are suicidal, you are most likely experiencing some form of depression. This is good news, because depression can be treated, helping you feel better.

•
A 4 minute depression quiz …maybe you have depression and want to find out right now, scientifically, at no cost.

•
Symptoms of depression …the specific symptoms of a full blown episode of clinical depression

Do you know someone who is suicidal… or would you like to be able to help, if the situation arises? Learn what to do, so that you can make the situation better, not worse.
•
Handling a call from a suicidal person …a very helpful ten-point list that you can print out and keep near your phone or computer.

•
What can I do to help someone who may be suicidal? …a helpful guide, includes Suicide Warning Signs.

Other online sources of help: •
The Samaritans – trained volunteers are available 24 hours a day to listen and provide emotional support. You can call a volunteer on the phone, or e-mail them. Confidential and non-judgmental. Short of writing to a psychotherapist, the best source of online help.

•
Talk to a therapist online – Read this page to find out how.

•
Depression support group online: Psych Central Depression Support Group – Please note: this is a very big group, but amidst all the chatter, it is possible to find someone who will hear you and offer support.

•
Psych Central has a good listing of online resources for suicide – and other mental health needs.

•
Still feel bad? These jokes might relieve the pressure for a minute or two.

•
If you want help finding a human being to talk with in person, who can help you live through this, try reading this article about how to Choose a Competent Counselor.

Sometimes people need additional private help before they are ready to talk with someone in person. Here are a few books you could read on your own in private. I know from personal experience that each one has helped someone like you.
•
Suicide: The Forever Decision by Paul G. Quinnett, PhD (Continuum, ISBN 0-8264-0391-3). Frank and helpful conversation with a therapist who cares.

•
Choosing to Live: how to defeat suicide through cognitive therapy by Thomas E. Ellis PsyD and Cory F. Newman PhD (New Harbinger Publications, ISBN 1-57224-056-3). Another conversational book with practical help for suicidal persons.

•
How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me: One Person’s Guide to Suicide Prevention by Susan Rose Blauner (William Morrow, ISBN 0066211212). A very practical survival guide by an actual survivor.

•
Out of the Nightmare: Recovery From Depression And Suicidal Pain, by David L. Conroy, PhD (Authors Choice Press, ISBN 0595414974). As if suicidal persons weren’t feeling bad enough already, our thoughtless attitudes can cause them to feel guilt and shame, and keep them from getting help in time. Dr. Conroy blasts apart the myths of suicide, and looks at suicidal feelings from the inside, in a down to earth, non-judgmental way. This is a book that will save lives by washing away the stigma of suicide and opening the door to a real way out of the nightmare.

Metanoia

http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/