Sarah Palin misses the point: Forget scoring points on Obama, think about the women and girls in Track’s life

www.salon.com|Mary Elizabeth Williams

Even within a week in which the entire family seems incoherent at best and abusive at worst, let’s remember that not every person with the Palin last name is reprehensible. So spare a kind thought this day for Kyla Grace Palin — Sarah’s grandchild and Track’s five year-old daughter.

There’s been a deluge of headlines about 26 year-old Iraq veteran Track Palin this week, thanks to his arrest for “fourth-degree assault, fourth-degree misconduct involving a weapon and interfering with a report of domestic violence” after an incident involving his current girlfriend. Police reported finding Track, who tested with a blood alcohol level of 0.189, “uncooperative, belligerent, and evasive,” and his girlfriend with “bruising and swelling around her left eye.” They also found an unloaded AR-15 on the premises. The girlfriend claimed Track had brandished it and threatened suicide.

Sarah Palin’s delusional blame game: Obama isn’t responsible for her son’s domestic violence charge

www.salon.com|Mary Elizabeth Williams

Moving forward in what appears to be a campaign to win the prize for Most Incoherent Human in America, Sarah Palin this week followed up her meme-worthy epic poem of an endorsement for Donald Trump with a truly fascinating explanation for her son Track’s recent arrest for domestic abuse. It’s Obama’s fault. And that would actually be laughable if this wasn’t about a 26 year-old grown man currently charged with fourth-degree assault, fourth-degree misconduct involving a weapon and interfering with a report of domestic violence.

Veterans hope MDMA can cure their PTSD: “It’s hard to talk about because it’s the elephant in the room”

www.salon.com|Christine Jun

Given the highly anticipated legalization of marijuana in several states, including New York in January 2016, some activists think it’s high time that Americans also reconsider the use of other Class I drugs for therapeutic purposes: in particular,MDMA and Ayahuasca for the treatment of veterans with PTSD.

Just in time for Veteran’s Day, Brad Burge, director of nonprofit research and educational organization MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) is leading a live webseminar discussion on MDMA and Ayahuasca in a medicinal context today with former Marine Ryan LeCompte, as part of MAPS’ “Psychedelic Science and Spirituality” series. LeCompte, who says he successfully recovered from PTSD with the help of psychedelics, founded the veteran’s support group VET (Veterans for Entheogenic Therapy) and is currently planning an Ayahuasca observational study partly funded by MAPS.

www.salon.com

The VA Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics (SORCC) was on the left at the last of three stoplights that move traffic along through White City on Crater Lake Highway 62, heading from Medford, Oregon, to Shady Cove. White City began as Camp White, established in 1941 as an Army training facility for the 91st Infantry Division during World War II.

The military commandeered over seventy-seven square miles for the base, which briefly served as a German POW camp, and provided training for more than 110,000 troops. Dozens of bunkers were built to stage exercises for machine gun crews, and the gray cement pillboxes squatting in the pastures provided a stark structural backdrop for the cattle grazing peacefully around them. When the war ended, the military hospital and barracks were turned over to the Veterans Administration and reopened as the only free-standing domiciliary in the country. We lived about eleven miles away, as the crow flies, on what was once the old artillery training field, and the hardpan pasture and old white oak trees still spit out the occasional casing or bullet.

www.salon.com

The brain is extraordinarily good at alerting us to threats. Loud noises, noxious smells, approaching predators: they all send electrical impulses buzzing down our sensory neurons, pinging our brain’s fear circuitry and, in some cases, causing us to fight or flee. The brain is also adept at knowing when an initially threatening or startling stimulus turns out to be harmless or resolved. But sometimes this system fails and unpleasant associations stick around, a malfunction thought to be at the root of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). New research has identified a neuronal circuit responsible for the brain’s ability to purge bad memories, findings that could have implications for treating PTSD and other anxiety disorders.

Kyle longed to return to the war, to the world he knew the best, where everything made sense and he was in the company of others who understood him and appreciated his talents. His wife, however, said that if he reenlisted she would take their two young children and leave him. Trying to find a sense of purpose outside of combat, Kyle participated in various activities for veterans, primarily hunting trips. In addition, he started a company that provided security at the 2012 London Olympics, helped guard ships near Somalia from pirates, and served briefly as a bodyguard for Sarah Palin.