Children of Same-Sex Parents Grow Up to be Depressed
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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has been fact-checked into oblivion for claiming this week that children do better when raised by traditional, heterosexual parents, but a new study shows that he was right all along. Donald Paul Sullins, a sociologist from the Catholic University of America, has just published a new longitudinal study that suggests greater rates of depression for adults who grew up under same-sex parentage.
“At age 28, the adults raised by same-sex parents were at over twice the risk of depression as persons raised by man-woman parents,” Sullins wrote in the study’s abstract.
Unlike previous studies which focused mostly on children of same-sex parents during their childhoods, Sullins’ work followed children from the age of 15 to the age of 28. Since depression is a mental illness that often only develops in adulthood, this difference may explain why the new study sticks out so much from the rest of the published science.
To hone in on his findings, Sullins looked for rates of co-morbidities to depression among his sample. These risk factors include obesity, anxiety, stigmatization, and a history of abuse. According to the study, 92% of children who grew up with same-sex parents report being abused in some way – either physically, emotionally, or verbally. 23% said they had been abused sexually.
Sullins insisted that his findings should not be used to double-down on stigmatizing the children of gay parents, but he also said we couldn’t afford to overlook the facts.
“Well-intentioned concern for revealing negative information about a stigmatized minority does not justify leaving children without support in an environment that may be problematic or dangerous for their dignity and security,” Sullins said.
That’s the real danger. That we’ll get so entrenched in the political correctness of same-sex marriage that we won’t be able to look at the truth of the situation. The left is already trying to make any criticism of the LGBT lifestyle an example of hate speech; studies like the one here will be summarily ignored by the activist movement. If there are more to follow, they’ll come up with reasons to explain away the findings: Perhaps Republican speeches against gay marriage are driving up rates of depression…
It’s all well and good to protect the gay community, but maybe we should start protecting the individuals who never asked to be part of this debate.
Black Trump Supporters Debate White Liberals Outside the RNC
by Jason DeWitt
A spirited debate took place outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland Tuesday, between black Trump supporters and white anti-Trump activists on the subject of Black Lives Matter and police officers.
10 Things Kids Learned During The Great Depression
The Great Depression hit everyone hard, no matter if you were rich or poor. After the stock market crashed in 1929, unemployment soared to 25% and families either moved West (where things ended up being worse) or stayed put and made due with what they had. We wanted to celebrate that strong generation by sharing some of the things that they learned during those years.
#1. They Learned to Save Any and All Containers
It didn't matter what type of container it was -- plastic, a box, a glass jar, or a bag -- they would keep it. We remember half of our kitchen cabinets being filled with empty containers! While we sometimes poked fun at this, our parents were usually right: almost without fail, an occasion would pop up when one of the containers was the perfect solution.
#2: They Learned to Make Clothes from Almost Anything
In the 1920's, flour and feed sacks were made out of cotton, and after the Depression hit, women began using the bags to make clothes. When the manufacturers realized this, they began printing the sacks with colorful inks and patterns. You can see a few of these flour sack dresses above!
#3: They Learned How to Repair Their Clothes and Shoes
They made their clothes and shoes and hats and coats last longer than you could imagine, and this was a point of pride! They not only knew how to repair everything, but they enjoyed doing so. In those days, a patched coat was a sign of handiwork and skill and not something people looked down on.
#4: The Learned to be Creative in the Kitchen.
You had to make the food you had last, so the kitchen became a place of great creativity. Yesterday's chicken would be Wednesday's casserole, potatoes could be made about 100 different ways, and powdered milk could be stretched out for months. To this day, we're not sure how they did it (or what some of the stuff we ate really was), but we are proud of how hard they worked for us.
#5: They Appreciated and Depended on Their Neighbors
During the Depression, there was a much greater sense of community. Everyone was in a tough situation, so people came together and watched out for each other. For them, neighbors not only became friends, but they became part of the family. If they were short on eggs or milk, there was always a neighbor you could ask, and they knew they could do the same down the road.
#6: They Developed a Love of Coupons
After the Depression eased and WWII was over, Depression parents often became expert coupon-ers. They knew the value of a dollar, and for them a coupon wasn't appealing simply for the deal, but they knew they could do something with the savings. And that's why you may have seen a parent or grandparent spend an hour or so a day cutting out coupons!
#7: They Learned How to Love Their Canning
After the harvest, you didn't splurge: you "got to canning". Depression-era parents seemed to *love* their canning, and they were proud of it when it was done!
#8: They Learned that You Can Always Have a Picnic
We remember picnics - lots of them! That's one of the things we miss most about those days: it seemed like our parents could have a picnic out of nowhere. We're still not sure how they did it, but they could seemingly make a blanket and some fruit and snacks appear from thin air!
#9: A Metal Tub Makes a Great Bath
This one needs no explaining. You remember the tub we're talking about!
#10: They Learned to Never Give Up!
It almost goes without saying, but the simply didn't give up. They were so used to hard times that they were grateful for all opportunities, and when they got them, they worked until the job was done.
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I know… I know… For a lot of our readers, the thought of saving money when you’re living paycheck to paycheck is a joke.
It’s not that working people don’t want to save; it’s just that too many of us are struggling with trying to pay the rent and put gas in the car. By the time the month is over, there’s nothing left to save.
So I’m not going to lecture anyone on the importance of saving, but let me share some tips on how I broke the “paycheck to paycheck” cycle…
Open an online savings or checking account and deposit $5. Heck, roll your quarters if you have to.
There are a bunch of great online banks, but one of my favorites is Aspiration because they offer an interest rate that is around 100x what a normal bank offers, plus there are no monthly fees.
You can open a savings account at your local bank, but my suggestion is to go with an online bank. You’ll be less likely to withdraw the money.
I know it doesn’t seem worth it to deposit only a few bucks, but getting started is an extremely important first step! Just trust me.
Month 2 –
This month I want you to save $15 in your new savings account. Again, if you can do more, awesome!
If you need a little help earning an extra $15, check out Paribus. It’s a tool that searches your emails for companies that owe you money.
It’s free to sign up for Paribus and once you do, they will scan your email archives for any receipts. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from Amazon, Target, or one of the other 16 retailers listed on their website, it will track the item’s price and issue you a refund anytime there’s a price drop!
You don’t have to do anything!
Need a different idea?
Another great way to earn $15 is withInboxDollars. They will actually pay you to watch videos! There are hundreds of them — cooking videos, sport replays, news, and more. Plus, they give you $5 just for signing up.
Month 3 –
Our goal is work up to saving $100/month in the savings account. I know that seems lofty, but I’m going to help you earn that extra $100/month.
For this month, I just want you to try and put away $35 in the account.
I’ve had good success making extra money with these two market research companies: Swagbucks & VipVoice. These panels will pay you for your opinions on politics, movies, etc. If you sign up for both, you should easily make an extra $35/month (most surveys pay between $3-$4 each for 20 minutes of your time). Heck, sometimes I fill them out while I’m watching Netflix.
Need a different idea?
Another easy way to earn $35 is with Smart Panel. If you install their free app on your smartphone, they’ll pay you $15 after only two weeks of it being installed. And they’ll continue to pay you $5/month forever.
There are also a ton of different ways to make extra money on this site, so start poking around the archives.
Congrats! You’ve saved your first $55. That’s something to be proud of!
Month 4 –
Alright, this month it’s time to try and put away $100. Daunting, I know. But I’ve got a few ideas that might help…
– Try selling some of your old stuff online. For books, use a site like Bookscouter.com and they’ll compare 30+ different buyback sites and tell you which one is willing to pay the most for your books.
– You can try our list of 16 Companies giving away $1,810.25. These companies want you to try them out and they’ll pay you to do so. Some of them are easier than others, but just check it out.
– Or how about mystery shopping? Before I became a blogger, I was a full-time, professional mystery shopper. And I got pretty good at it – earning around $5,000/month. Here’s a list of the companies that I worked for. (None of them will charge you money to sign up. And if a mystery shopping company ever tries to charge you, it’s a scam. Stay away from those.)
I know a lot of people are already working two jobs, but mystery shopping can be a way of earning money and relaxing with your friends/family at the same time. My favorite are the restaurant mystery shops – you get a free meal and you get paid!
Month 5 – 12 –
Continue saving $100/month for the entire year. We want your year-end account balance to be $950.
Here are some ideas on how to make an extra $100/month:
It’s important to continue saving at least $100 each month. Use your regular paycheck for living expenses and save any extra money you make from the ideas on this website.
Once you’ve reached year 2, you’ve saved nearly $1,000. At this point, my suggestion would be to open an IRA. Lending Club happens to be my favorite (because I’m earning 14%/year), but anywhere will do.
Just one more piece of motivation. If you can continue to save $100/month for the next 20 years (at 14% interest), you’ll end up with $106,022! Can you imagine? More than $100,000 in a bank account!
You can do this.End the cycle today.
Good luck Penny Hoarders!
Disclosure: We appreciate you letting us include affiliate links in this post. It helps keep the beer fridge stocked in the Penny Hoarder break room.
Between September 1943 and June 1944, coinciding with the Nazi occupation of the city, Rome was struck by a mysterious epidemic. A previously unknown and highly contagious disease, the “K syndrome,” forced a local hospital to isolate dozens of infected patients in a special wing, completely inaccessible to outsiders – especially German soldiers.
If you never heard of the “K syndrome,” that’s because it’s not a real disease. In fact, it was a fictitious illness completely made up by the Fatebenefratelli hospital in order to keep dozens of Roman Jews safe from the Nazis who were hunting them down (the letter “K” was a reference to Albert Kesselring, the German officer in charge of the Italian capital).
Adriano Ossicini, back then a young doctor, came up with the idea and the other staff played along. With this creative trick they saved at least 40 lives. More than a thousand Roman Jews were arrested and deported to death camps – only a handful of them survived...
For Effective Brain Fitness, Do More Than Play Simple Games
July 8, 2016
Retiring
By CONSTANCE GUSTKE
WHEN a “brain fitness” course was introduced at her retirement community, Connie Cole was eager to sign up. After joining, she learned how to use an Apple iPad and work more complex tasks verbally and on paper.
“My father had dementia, so I’ll do anything I can,” said Ms. Cole, 86, a former elementary schoolteacher who also plays Sudoku puzzles every morning. “If I can give my kids anything, it’s to stay away from having it.”
Truth is, there is no known cure for dementia, or any evidence that exercising the brain in different ways can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. But such classes still offer useful skills to older people and are seen as helpful by many experts in improving the overall health and quality of life for participants.
The class at her Gayton Terrace community in Richmond, Va., Ms. Cole said, has forced her to think deeper and read more. Best of all, she has learned that regular habits like exercising and laughing and socializing, including talking to strangers, are engaging and perhaps even helpful in extending her life. They certainly help make it more enjoyable.
The theory of this more holistic approach, which goes beyond reliance on popular computer-based brain games, is that the brain thrives on continuous stimulation.
“Your brain doesn’t know how old it is,” said Paul Nussbaum, president of the Brain Health Center in Pittsburgh, which helped design the program used at Gayton Terrace and other communities that are part of the Brookdale Senior Living network. “And what it wants to do is learn.”
Brain exercises should rely on novelty and complexity, he added, including board games that are played with others. All kinds of concentrated activities, like learning a foreign language or how to play a musical instrument, can be fulfilling for older people. But along with exercising and good nutrition, a brain that is fully engaged socially, mentally and spiritually is more resilient, Mr. Nussbaum argues.
The worst thing for older adults, he said, is isolation.
“We all have the ability to shape our brains for health,” Mr. Nussbaum said, “and the earlier the better.”
Legions of baby boomers already use games on computers or apps to stimulate the brain, but they should be thought of as part of a larger engagement with the world, Mr. Nussbaum said.
Dakim BrainFitness, for example, is a computer program aimed at sharpening memory and language abilities, which some retirement communities offer. “It won’t necessarily delay Alzheimer’s,” said Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive of the market research firm SharpBrains.
But he says he believes that Dakim and similar programs like Saido Learning, which was developed in Japan to address working memory in the prefrontal cortex through handwriting, math and reading out loud, offer other benefits and may help slow memory loss and other normal symptoms of aging. There is no magic pill, he cautioned, adding that aerobic exercise is especially important to good health for older people.
Áegis Living on Madison, an assisted living community in Seattle, offers brain games in its brain fitness center. Earl Collins, 90, has been playing brain games there a few times a week for the last two years.
“I keep using my brain,” said Mr. Collins, a retired YMCA executive. “And the game makes me remember, decide and observe.”
At the same time, Mr. Collins plays a trombone in bands and is socially active, including going to a church group in his neighborhood, attending lectures and keeping in touch with former colleagues.
The consensus of researchers, according to a statement from the Stanford Center on Longevity signed by 69 scientists, is that brain games cannot prevent dementia from developing in those who are genetically inclined.
When playing brain games, you get better at playing games, said Laura Carstensen, founding director of the center. But there is no evidence that you will get smarter and fitter.
Still, new learning is helpful, she added, especially interacting rather than passively listening. One good exercise is learning to be a photographer, she said, which translates into better performance on spatial tests.
Another study, financed by the National Institutes of Health, suggests that cognitive training that uses thinking, such as problem solving and learning, like reading a newspaper article and discussing it with a friend, has staying power in the brain — even 10 years after the training ends. In a study published in 2014, the 2,832 participants who did this training had less difficulty performing everyday tasks, such as preparing meals or shopping. Memory training itself, the researchers concluded, does not have long-lasting results.
“This is a very hopeful message,” said George Rebok, a professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who worked on the study. “Even a modest investment in cognitive training pays dividends up to a decade later. And you can impact everyday functions.”
Finding new ways to challenge yourself every day, Mr. Rebok said, is a good idea. This can include lots of ordinary activities like doing mental calculations rather than reaching for a calculator or taking a new driving route or eating with the opposite hand.
“It goes against what we’ve gotten used to doing,” he said, “but you must continue doing these exercises seamlessly. They will increase brain neuro plasticity.”
Wendy Suzuki, professor of neural science and psychology at New York University, offers similar advice. “Every time you learn something new, the brain changes,” she said. “And the most lasting physical changes are from psychical exercise.”
Marty Donovan, 83, signed up for a four-week brain fitness course at her South Port Square retirement community in Port Charlotte, Fla. There she did mental workouts like tossing up a handkerchief with one hand and catching it with another, doing puzzles and learning about nutrition.
“I learned that my brain didn’t need to deteriorate,” said Ms. Donovan, whose parents had dementia. “But I need to stimulate it on a daily basis to keep me out of trouble. The ball is in my court.”
Ms. Donovan has been a lifelong exerciser. She leads a water aerobics class, does yoga and is learning to meditate. “I tend to be a loner, though,” she said, “and I’m working on that.”
Carol Watkins, 78, signed up for the brain waves program at Asbury Methodist Village in Maryland. Besides covering nutrition and exercise, the program encouraged her to choose a new project that she had never done. So she made a photo essay using the photo editing program Picasa. At the end of the class, she brought dragon fruit, which she had never purchased before, to the party.
“I try to do something different every day,” said Ms. Watkins, a former federal government employee. “When I walk, I go on different paths to get there or use different stairwells.”
Mr. Fernandez of SharpBrains said he would like to see a more systematic way to measure cognition, such as annual mental health checkups. “If we had better assessments, we could empower consumers,” he said. “That’s the next frontier.”
Ms. Cole is planning to learn sign language, which is novel and complex. “When you have to move into a facility, you think your life is over,” she said. “Now I want to read more on my Nook.”
(Photo: flickr/denisgiles)