Is this a real story or fiction? Popular Mechanix — which is still around, although the ‘x’ is gone — was never exactly a hotbed of tawdry tales, so it probably is true. With tasering and all the rest of the crap that some cops and courts do now, and considering the times (1960) which didn’t have some of the protections we have now, it is believable in a pulp novel kinda way.
And isn’t it a treat to have things like entire issues of old magazines online? A treasure trove of history, of a sort.
CORRECTION: As intrepid commenter, BenFranske, pointed out, this is really from a magazine called Whisper, a rag which appears to be a tad ‘sinsational’ in its ‘reporting.’ Still, an interesting read.
So, do we have links to ANY of the newspaper articles or court documents and whatnot that might give this story a slight whiff of credibility?
#1: This is left to the student as an exercise. Please have your 1000 word minimum report on this topic on my desk by Friday.
I had something similar happen to me.
I bought my TV and car and house and all my stuff on credit, just like my neighbors. We all thought that we could pay for all this when we sold our houses later at a big profit. When housing prices stopped going up and nobody could make the payments after the interest rates went up, the government took over all the big financial institutions. It didn’t stop there though, then they took over the largest manufacturer in the country when people finally stopped buying on credit, and they are talking about controlling other businesses like healthcare, and making laws about how much money people can make, and taking away money people have already made.
They say I’m unpatriotic because I think I’m the best judge of how to spend my money. They think the government is best able to run peoples lives. If I don’t go along with their plans, they’ll put me in jail.
All because I bought stuff on credit.
They say I’m unpatriotic because I think I’m the best judge of how to spend my money. They think the government is best able to run peoples lives. If I don’t go along with their plans, they’ll put me in jail.
Nah, you’re just neurotic.
Ummm. That’s not from Popular Mechanics, or Mechanix. It’s from a magazine called “Whisper” as near as I can tell it’s the equivalent of a supermarket tabloid. Other stories from that issue are “Sammy Davis Jr. Why He Said No to Kim Novak, Why He Said Yes to Her Look Alike” and “The Story The Papers Couldn’t Print: The Last Hours of Errol Flynn”
[Corrected. Thx. That’ll teach me to post things before my morning diet pepsi — UD]
“In addition, in 1997, Tenet agreed to pay $100 million to settle lawsuits brought by former NME patients who charged that they had been illegally imprisoned in the company’s psychiatric hospitals to obtain their insurance benefits.”
http://corp-research.org/archives/jan03.htm
This was long a practice. From ~’34-63 we saw the highest per capita rate of involuntary incarceration in mental hospitals…
great piece of fiction, anyone notice the quality ads in the “Popular Mechanix”??
I think they morphed into weekly world news..
:))
As for taking all those nuts out of institutions and placing them on the street… well, that’s certainly worked out really well, hasn’t it!