He can probably complete a cheap easy PhD while he's in the big house. Come out stronger than ever. The University of Phoenix comes to you yo.
Oh, and my real feelings on this are pretty well summed up in this thread too http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/46634-will-you-pay-your-childs-college.html
A crooked politician? You don't say? This comes along so rarely that everyone stands around in shock. We're all staring at the screen like a cow staring at a fence post. Or not.
He committed crimes. He got caught. He tried to minimize it. He was convicted. Now he's sentenced. It's happened before and will happen again.
Or both. Depression is a bummer. But it isn't a form of insanity. If he was depressed, he was also lucid and knew what he was doing. No excuse.
I know nothing of the man, other than that I am not a fan of his father, but I have a slight disagreement with you about depression. No excuse- I agree. Lucid? Nope. I used to be depressed. Those were NOT lucid years. Those were lost years that I can never gain back. I did and said some things that make me sick to have to even recall and while I wish I had been strong and mature enough to handle it, I was not myself at all. I deserve blame for all of what I did as a depressed person- but THAT Maniac was lost in space. THIS Maniac is lucid, despite the amusing username. I hope you have no idea what I'm really talking about because only those who have gone through it can make full sense of where I'm coming from when I say this. Sorry for the digression. I realize that "depression" sounds like a cheap excuse, but OMG, I think I would have been better off with cancer.
The point I'm trying to make is NOT that he wasn't impaired, and I don't want to minimize the impact of depression. What I'm trying to say is that depression, like most mental illnesses, doesn't make you insane. He did not lose legal capacity, in other words, and is thus responsible for his actions. I managed prison inmates for three years. In that role, I dealt with a lot of mental illness. Inmates would want to use their afflictions--some pretty severe, like being bi-polar--as excuses for their misbehavior while incarcerated. But as the mental health staff would always remind us, the inmates may have illnesses, but they knew right from wrong and could decide to act accordingly. Same with Jackson. What he did was wrong and he had the capacity NOT to do it.
I don't care to argue whether or not his mental illness had anything to do with his choice to commit illegal acts. I do want to make it clear that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, or he claims that he was diagnosed with it. That is different from depression. When people with this disorder are manic, they can become delusional. Some symptoms of bipolar are so severe, that sometimes people with the disorder are misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia. I knew one person very closely who had hallucinations. This person also attacked people because of delusions and paranoia. I worked at a place with a person who threatened to kill people because he thought he heard them talking about him when it was impossible for him to hear anything they said. They were in a different building across the street. This disorder can cause serious psychosis. I don't know if Jesse Jackson Jr's case is this severe, but I just thought I'd clear up any potential misconceptions.
If insanity had been a viable defense, he would have used it. Let's wait for the inevitable comeback.
Did you not read my whole post? I did not want to argue whether or not he knew right from wrong, but he did try to use his mental illness to ask for leniency. I just wanted to explain that bipolar disorder is a different animal from depression. I actually know someone who was sent to a behavioral hospital and released a few days later instead of being charged with assault. It all depends on the severity of the illness.
I don't know what "inevitable comeback" means but I just think he's a scumbag conartist. Go to jail. Go directly to jail and do not, under any circumstances, collect $200.00. Bye-bye.
Politicians at their best waste our money. At the worst they steal it. This guy was stealing it from his supporters. Sickening. Of course he wouldn't have gotten a dime of mine.
