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IMPACT magazine goes delusional

LA SCN

NOT drinking the kool-aid
I still get some cherch publications in the mail - bless their hearts - and I can't resist looking through them for giggles.

Of note this week is the latest IMPACT mag, issue 150, the 31st anniversary commemorative issue.

OMFG what a gilt-edged monument to full color photography and delusional hyperbole. It sounds like the spew Adolph Hitler was putting out about how his Third Reich was winning the war as the Allies were wiping out the Wehrmacht on all fronts.

And the retouched pics of the DwarfenFuhrer show him looking more like Alfred E. Neuman every day. What a hoot and what a rube! The more obsessed he gets with proving his rightness, the more psychotic he appears. The cover shot has him resembling not the Wizard of Oz but the Wizard of Odd.
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Lest I wax overly Ad Hominem-istic, let me cut to my main point.

On page 20 of the mag is an article entitled 'Revealing the Enemy Within'. As I looked through the article I came across an horrific figure quoted in the article: that Army veterans are committing suicide at a rate of 22 a day. 22 A DAY. My jaw dropped; WTF I thought! I work in a business that hires vets, a business many of whose customers are active duty and retired vets, in a town whose main economic benefit comes from a huge military base and adjoining defense related research park. I would have heard about this rate of suicide - WE would have heard about this tragic rate of death on a national level if it were true.

In its gaudy, megalomaniacal, self glorifying attempt to make itself relevant, the cherch via this IAS publication has shown that indeed the Hallmark of Dianetics and Scientology is most certainly NOT Integrity. This mag is in the same league as the worst of Yellow Journalism and vile Opportunism.

If all that is presented in this magazine were true, Hell, there wouldn't be much left to do to salvage Earth - the Scilons have done it all.

But it is not all true.

The Truth About 22 Veteran Suicides A Day
By Stacy Bare on June 2, 2015

http://taskandpurpose.com/truth-22-veteran-suicides-day/

<snip>
A more recent study, which surveyed 1.3 million veterans who were discharged between 2001 and 2007, found that “Between 2001 and 2009, there were 1650 deployed veterans and 7703 non-deployed veteran deaths. Of those, 351 were suicides among deployed veterans and 1517 were suicides among non-deployed veterans. That means over nine years, there was not quite one veteran suicide a day,” according to the Washington Post.
<end snip>

Dear Davey and Crew: If you are as caring as you want to portray, how about volunteering at some vet rehab centers or funneling some of your obscene wealth to Wounded Warriors and similar groups. No? Oh - I get it - Idle Orgs are empty and you are pumping the whales dry - maybe you can get some G.I Bill dollars into the coffers if you work it just right...Ain't that just like Hubbard.
 

DeeAnna

Patron Meritorious
FWIW the 22 suicides per day figure was from an old (2013) CNN article that can still be found online. That figure has since been debunked.
 

whoisxenu

Patron with Honors
Not sure it's been debunked. Questioned certainly. Whatever the rate, it appears much higher for vets. But it seems the mag got the statistic (hate using that word now) from legit sources.

From the W. Post:

"The more important issue is whether the rate of suicides among veterans is higher than among the general population–and if so, by how much."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dustin-demoss/veteran-suicide-rate_b_6417182.html

This is from jan 2015.

"The most commonly cited figures in reference to veteran suicide rates are those of 22 per day, or one every 65 minutes. These numbers come from the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) in their February 2013 report on veteran suicide rates in the United States."

"While the current available data makes it impossible to precisely determine the suicide rate among veterans, it seems likely that the number is significantly greater than 22 a day which is why bills such as the Clay Hunt Act are vitally important."

"When considering the information available in the Department of Veteran Affairs study, it might be useful to note that veteran suicide is widely underreported. As discussed by Moni Basu in their article "Why Suicide Rate Among Veterans May be More Than 22 a Day," veteran suicide numbers are hard to accurately calculate for a number of reasons, including the circumstances under which death occurred, the status of the veteran in the VA system at the time of death, and even the feelings of the veteran's remaining family members."

And from the Washington Post:

"To account for uncertainties, researchers gave a range of 18 to 22 veteran suicides a day, which is consistent with previous VA estimates using CDC data. The report does not include some states with the largest veteran population (including California, Texas, Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina), so it is unclear how this would affect the rate."
 

Lone Star

Crusader
Several years ago a doctor from Fort Hood told me that suicide is a major problem in the Army. He said on deployment days they had to really watch the soldiers carefully because those were the days in which attempts skyrocketed. This was during the hottest phase of the Afghan and Iraq wars.
 

LA SCN

NOT drinking the kool-aid
From the article in the OP:

<snip>
There is a statistic that has been widely quoted in the veteran community that highlights an estimated 22 veterans a day are committing suicide. It is a deeply troubling statistic and has galvanized the veteran movement, both from inside the military and veteran communities, and externally, to bring about a wide range of programming nationwide. The statistic, however, is widely misunderstood.

This figure — 22 veterans a day commit suicide — while widely touted by politicians, media outlets, veterans service organizations, among others, comes from the VA’s 2012 Suicide Data Report, which analyzed the death certificates of 21 states from 1999 to 2011, and often is not provided within the right context. The report itself, as cited by the Washington Post earlier this year, warned, “It is recommended that the estimated number of veterans be interpreted with caution due to the use of data from a sample of states and existing evidence of uncertainty in veteran identifiers on U.S. death certificates.” As an example, the average age of veteran suicides within the data set was nearly 60 years old, not representative of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans generation.
<endsnip>

US Veterans deserve respect and support, not an attempt to make them another plunder market for the cherch. If the cherch was actually able to do as Hubbard purported it to be about, the elimination of "mans' inhumanity to man" and the star high "Aims of Scientology", what a different world it would be.

But alas, after 65 years, it has shown itself to be yet another betrayal instead of help. In fact, it is itself a source of "mans' inhumanity to man". Just ask Lisa McPherson, Paulette Cooper and many more.

Please spare our veterans from the scourge of the scilons.
 

cleared cannibal

Silver Meritorious Patron
Several years ago a doctor from Fort Hood told me that suicide is a major problem in the Army. He said on deployment days they had to really watch the soldiers carefully because those were the days in which attempts skyrocketed. This was during the hottest phase of the Afghan and Iraq wars.

Here is some VA info on veteran suicide. Interestingly those deployed had a lower rate than the non deployed.

http://www.publichealth.va.gov/epidemiology/studies/suicide-risk-death-risk-recent-veterans.asp.

Not really any higher than a lot of other occupations.



https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-11-professions-highest-suicide-rates-abe-bushansky
 

WildKat

Gold Meritorious Patron
The irony about the cult discussing suicide is that if they get even a whiff that a public person has tried it or thinks about it, that person is escorted to the door. They don't have a cure for depression let alone suicide. And they won't take on someone with those problems. (Of course, if you have a million dollars in your account, maybe they make an exception.)
 

Ogsonofgroo

Crusader
Ha! Every version of 'Freedumb' magazine, and the other spin-offs, contain more crap than an average outhouse, stupid, slander, utter tripe, then 'OMG we needs moar moneys!" :eyeroll:

It is not that 'Impact' went delusional, it has always been the way the cult swings, its seems to be 'what is true for them, is true to them', reality has not a whit to to with it imho.

Old papa Hubbard, counted on getting people to believe anything he spewed, cult of Scientology merely continues the tradition: Brain-numbed, deluded, starry-eyed sheeples, wending their ways into a nest of vampires... Don't ever expect a change of method, the spews may change, but the plans have always remained the same.

Me ol' .02$ worthliness du jour.

:unsure:
 

Victoria

Patron Meritorious
I read somewhere that your nose and your ears never stop growing.
(Depressing thought, lol.)

However, making your hair bigger does not appear to be the offsetting solution.

And with lil Davey and his tiny body, this is only going to get worse.
 
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