Teen suicide gets plenty of airtime, but a new US study finds
that middle-aged whites are emerging as a high-risk group.
Could this be due to the
recession?

Before 1999, white middle-aged men were the least likely to
kill themselves. However, for the period from 1999 to 2005,
the rate for African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Native
Americans declined or stayed stable while middle-aged whites
experienced a significant increase in suicides.

Researcher Holly Wilcox says, “Adolescent, young adult and
elderly populations are on our radar, because completed
suicides have traditionally been higher in elderly white men
and because of high suicide attempt rates and potential
years of life lost in young people. We have some school-
based and primary care prevention efforts in place to
carefully monitor both ends of the age spectrum. I don’t
usually worry about the middle-aged group. It’s alarming to
me.”

Despite the fact that labor unions have become powerless
and both middle class and
manufacturing jobs have fled overseas, the
government insisted everything was fine economically until
now—when it can no longer deny we have problems. But the
folks being affected by these problems
sure knew
it—and tragically, some of them may have given up trying.

I would say “see I told you I was sick ” –

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A Room with a BOO

The Martha Washington Inn, in Abingdon, Virginia, hosts a number
of ghosts left over from the Civil War.  Built in 1832 by Congressman
General Francis Preston, the house passed into the hands of the Methodist
Church upon his death two years later.  The church then founded the
Martha Washington College for young ladies on its premises.  

When the war reached their doorsteps in the mid 1860s, the college
doubled as a hospital for the war wounded.  One soldier, John Stoves,
had been badly wounded and lay dying in what was to become room 403. 
Beth, a student of the college, tended to him and fell in love.  As
he passed from this life, she played the violin to ease his pain. 
Beth herself died a few weeks afterwards from complications of typhoid
fever.  Her music can now be heard faintly caressing the night, playing
to her dead lover and sometimes accompanying her solitary visits to the
room.

A phantom horse waits for his master outside the front steps, a Union
soldier that was shot in front of the house in 1864.  On moonless
nights, the horse has been seen roaming the grounds searching for his owner
and awaiting the call to ride home.

The basement holds the spirits of black slaves, they were kept in
an underground chamber and some were buried within its stone walls.

Before being killed by enemy soldiers, a young confederate entered
the house and ran up the stairs to warn of encroaching Union troops. 
Shot upstairs, his blood still stains the floorboards outside the Governor’s
Room.  A bellhop, who’s been with the establishment for over 30 years,
tells that carpets that lay over the area develop holes over the spot where
the soldier lay dying.  Cold spots, apparitions and self-turning doorknobs
have also been reported.

My favorite ghost is still looking for half of his head.  Numerous
accounts of a soldier hobbling with help from a crutch and leaving a trail
of mud in his wake have been reported from a hallway of the Inn. 
Long past medical help, there is only speculation why he is here at the
old hospital, a ball leaving only a hideous mangle of bone and sparse flesh
had split his head.  Perhaps he’s trying to turn off the damn violin…

by

Physical Pain, having my gall bladder out, the old way – Mental pain, catholic school -

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This very famous, historical landmark
which remains a prideful part of Texas history, is said to be truly haunted. 
Not a suprise, due to what has conspiring here in 1836.  The Alamo
was orginally a small chapel built by Franciscan monks here in 1718. 
Later it was expanded as a mission and a fortress, used by Texas as a stronghold
against the mexicans over land rights.  In March, 1836, the president
of Mexico General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and 4000 troops laid siege
to the Alamo.  The 11-day battle resulted in the deaths of most of
the 188 defenders of the Alamo.  The Loses for the Mexicans were over
1600.  General Lopez de Santa Ana ordered the bodies of the slain
Texans dumped in a large grave and the Alamo torn to the ground. 
But when the men started tearing down the walls, ghostly hands protruded
to stop them and they fled in fear.   The Alamo has not forgoten
the cries of those that perished on that day.  Today the Alamo still
stands in the heart of San Antonio.  Tourists staying in a nearby
hotel have reported seing grotesque apparitions coming from the wall of
the old Alamo.  There are also other reports of a ghost on top of
the Alamo, walking back and forth trying to find an escape.  Other
reports of screaming and yelling coming from the Alamo after hours are
also heard.  I feel that most of the hauntings are actually residual
hauntings, meaning that they are actually playbacks of past events somehow
traped within time.