The Real Drug Problem

Substance abuse is the symptom. The real problem is the world lags way behind on mental health issues.

If medical care is hard to come by in much of the world — in rural Indiana as well as rural India — mental health care is often impossible to get. In the United States, at least half of major depression goes untreated, and in very poor countries the figure is close to 100 percent.

The war on drugs should be a war on depression.

Related articles

• Many U.S. Men With Depression, Anxiety Don't Get Treated, CDC Finds
• Why Is America's Mental Health the Worst In the World?
• Opinionator | Fixes: Depressed? Try Therapy Without the Therapist
• DoD Seeks to Eliminate Stigma for Seeking Mental Health Care
• Bipolar Disorder and the Uninvestigated Latino Population
• A New Kind Of Treatment May Change How We Think About Depression

Django Unchained: Kill White Folks And Get Paid For It

Django Unchained
Review: 'Django Unchained' is brilliantly acted across the board
Review: Django Unchained (2012)
'Django Unchained' review: Sweet revenge
Review: Django Unchained Is a Love Story That Ranks Among Tarantino’s Best
Tarantino's Genius 'Unchained'
The Black, the White and the Angry

“white guys abolish slavery like this” (pass constitutional amendment); “but black guys, they abolish slavery like this” (blow up plantation)

Related articles

• The Django Moment, Or When Should White People Laugh in Django Unchained?
• Quentin Tarantino: 'Roots' Was Inauthentic
• A Glamberous Review: Django Unchained
• Trailer Thursday: Django Unchained
• Django Unchained: Uncomfortable for people who want to believe they're still chained
• Spike Lee: 'Django Unchained' Disrespectful to Ancestors
• Is 'Django Unchained' The 'Blackest Film Ever?'
• Does 'Django Unchained' get the history of slavery right?
• Tarantino On 'Django,' Violence And Catharsis - NPR

The White Male Conundrum

Image via CrunchBaseWhite Male Conspiracy To Drive Me Homeless
The Proverbial White Male

Most of the people I actively know today are in the NY tech ecosystem. The next thousand people I'd prefer to get on a first name basis with are mostly in the NY tech ecosystem. And there the Fred Wilson name stands out. And Fred is a white male. I don't think I have ever made Fred feel like, oh no Fred, you are a white male and you are worth millions and I feel queasy about it. Quite the opposite. I have had and I have expressed genuine, deep, heartfelt appreciation for his life's work. (A Surprising Blog Post From Fred Wilson) The guy is officially the top VC in the world. And I admire him for that. Excellence gets me. It makes me happy to watch excellence. On the other hand I note the guy walked into this town I believe in the 1980s with an empty pocket and a very loving wife. (Larry Ellison) I admire his success even more because of that. I find it very inspiring that he started where he started. (At MIT, So I Did It)

And I have had my disagreements with Fred, all very well documented at this blog. And I have talked of John Doerr's Larry Page mistake, and Fred Wilson's Jack Dorsey mistake. But then I am hugely biased in favor of the founding CEO type.

My point being my admiration for Fred has not been sycophancy, that is not my style. And my admiration for Fred has not been some kind of a subservience to the white male, something I have seen too many people of my background go for. Just ask Tim Berners-Lee, a guy who has a much more secure place in the history of tech than does Fred. (Tim Berners-Lee: The Internet Is Not A Country)

Just Found Out Mike Hudack Is Also A High School Dropout

Dropping out of high school is obviously not enough. You also have to go ahead and create a Blip.TV or, in David Karp's case, a Tumblr. But I just now found out Mike Hudack is a high school dropout. Wow.

I knew the name for a while. And I had followed him on Tumblr a while. I had seen him in a video online, he was on some kind of a panel. He came across as a man to watch. There is this raw intensity an entrepreneur throws out like a halo. This guy definitely had it.

Wearing Black

I wear black. I should not have to explain.

Black is a beautiful color. I wear black. A certain shade of black, with a little shine on it.

Used to be sky blue, now it is black. I like black. It is an amazing color. It has depth.

I showed up in Kentucky with a tailor made suit from back home: brown.

But right now it is black. I like the color.

It also is about simplicity.

I have a few different black Brazil shirts that I wear at home on a few different days. Pele was God when I was growing up. He still is. Brazil is Mecca.

I wear black to express solidarity with my president Barack Obama. I wear black for him too. You have no idea. You have no idea what he means to me. All he ever needed to do was win in 2008, and win he did. He could have let the Great Depression happen, he might not have passed health care reform or Wall Street reform, and I would still have liked him just fine. The fact that he is destined for greatness makes it easier to like him, but that is not why I like him. (The Tea Party Is Getting America Talibanized)

I wear black. It feels good. It feels right. It feels warm.