Go Retire Psychiatrist

Thoughts on the Book: “King: A Life” by Jonathan Eig

I just finished Jonathan Eig’s biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and I have just a few thoughts to share on my immediate impression of the book. Before I read the book, I got the impression that there might be a detailed description of Dr. King’s mental health.

Although I didn’t see any specific speculation by Eig on the matter, he did mention psychiatrist Dr. Nassir Ghaemi’s impressions about King based on historical records that Dr. King had suffered from a clinically significant mood disorder. Eig wrote a one sentence summary which followed a comment by King’s wife Coretta about his depression:

“Decades later, the psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi would write that King probably suffered severe depression, a psychiatric illness that can enhance “realism in the assessment of one’s circumstances as well as empathy toward others.”

This was followed by a comment from a psychologist who cast doubt on the idea that King suffered from depression.

I’ve never read any of Dr. Ghaemi’s books. Eig didn’t list any specific books by Dr. Ghaemi. I think the relevant source might be his book, “A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness” published in 2011.

In a previous post I expressed my skepticism that the suicide attempts sometimes mentioned (although not consistently called that in Eig’s book). The only two such episodes described in his book are reactions to his grandmother being injured in the first instance and after she died in the second. He jumped out of a second story window both times and escaped serious injury. He was 12 and 13 years old respectively. Neither account describes any formal outpatient or inpatient mental health evaluation or treatment. It sounds like these were impulsive reactions based on the descriptions. I didn’t find any accounts in the book of suicide attempts in his adult life.

The Goldwater Rule which has been in the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Principles of Medical Ethics since 1972 discourages clinicians from diagnosing psychiatric illness in currently living persons. While that may not necessarily apply to deceased persons and may or may not only be relevant to members of the APA, I’m still unsure whether it’s always appropriate for mental health professionals to publicly entertain speculations or inferences about psychiatric diagnoses in anyone without an in-person evaluation. One possible exception might be for a threat assessment.

All that said, I didn’t find anything in Eig’s book that would contradict a non-psychiatric explanation for Dr. King’s emotional states in the context of the extraordinary pressures and burdens in his life. Although at times he was hospitalized for fatigue and “depression” it’s difficult to tell exactly how often.

This blog post so far takes up a fair amount of space discussing Eig’s book regarding the emotional side of Dr. King. There’s a lot more space in the book that emphasizes his incredible accomplishments, despite his being up against terribly high odds.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Groundhog Day Finally Explained

Well, by now everybody has heard the official news about what Punxsutawney Phil saw this morning since it’s Groundhog Day. On the other hand, the unofficial news is this: for some reason he saw extraterrestrials instead of his shadow. I know about it only because a drunken official calling me from the Pentagon spilled the beans to me and abruptly hung up just before he passed out.

Apparently, they were looking for a decent rib joint, which they’re always on the lookout for after traveling halfway across the galaxy.

You have to question the ETs preference for using so much fuel and creating missing time and hallucinations for thousands of people gathered for this time-honored and totally bogus event which the editors of The Old Farmer’s Almanac repeatedly try to debunk in a futile attempt to educate us about the seasons.

What almost nobody knows is that recently declassified government documents obtained by Brer Rabbit has led to the discovery of yet another conspiracy to hoodwink the American people about the ETs preoccupation with finding the best BBQ rib joint in the galaxy, which is genetically linked to their inability to distinguish humans from woodland creatures whose only real purpose in life is to dig holes in the ground so they can secretly write books circulated only amongst groundhogs about how silly it is for humans to call them ridiculous names like “whistle pigs.”

The truth is groundhogs know perfectly well how the seasons change and it has nothing to do with them—it’s all about the tooth fairy. But…ETs can’t handle the truth, as Col. Jessup has repeatedly pointed out in countless memes and gifs over the years.

We can only hope this deplorable state of affairs will be rectified when scientists eventually back engineer and reverse the polarities of the device (which is, trust me, stored in a cardboard box in a garage in Area 51) ETs use to hypnotize the criminals amongst their own kind into endlessly flying around in their souped up Tic-Tac UFOs in the absolutely pointless search for the perfect rib joint—all because the ET leaders can’t come up with a better solution to close the gaps in their worthless criminal justice system.

I hope I have made all this clear. Happy Groundhog Day!

Svengoolie Movie: “War of the Colossal Beast”

Svengoolie Intro: “Calling all stations! Clear the air lanes! Clear all air lanes for the big broadcast!”

I watched the movie “War of the Colossal Beast” last night. Sena saw only the first few scenes of it in the beginning because she took a bite out of a magical cake she got at Hy-Vee, grew into a giant (had to get a new roof), wandered downtown to the Ped Mall until she found a mushroom, nibbled on it till she shrunk down to normal size and didn’t get back home until the movie was over, so like always, I had to explain the show to her. Based on my Svengoolie movie “reviews” you can imagine how well that went!

Anyway, this movie was released by American International Productions in 1958 and it was a sort of but not really a sequel to their film “The Amazing Colossal Man,” released a year earlier. In that movie, a military man, Col. Glenn Manning got exposed to radiation in Las Vegas and grew to a height of 60 feet which meant he could hit the free throw shot from several miles away. He ran amok and the army lobbed bombs and shot bullets at him until he fell 700 feet off Boulder Dam and everybody assumed he died. Although there are restrictions on seeing this movie in certain venues because of a copyright restriction, you can find it on the web, including the Internet Archive.

In “War of the Colossal Beast,” the story picks up sort of where the not-really-a-prequel left off except, in the beginning of the movie, a lot of food trucks are disappearing from the roads. One of them belongs to John Swanson (George Becwar), a food truck owner whose truck got lost and says repeatedly to the police “Get the picture?” when he tells his account of what he knows about the theft. It doesn’t take long to “get the picture” that this is comic relief.

It turns out that Glenn Manning is filching food from trucks and he’s not sharing any of it with the 50-foot woman who has wandered over from a different movie set and is pretty hungry (partly because she drinks too much) after an extraterrestrial has zapped her with radiation leading to a sudden growth spurt.

A scientist, Dr. Carmichael (Russ Bender) and Maj. Mark Baird (Roger Pace) have “cooked up” a plan to catch Manning using Italian bread spiked with chloral hydrate and evidently, Manning’s sister Joyce (Sally Fraser) approves of this plan. Baird and Carmichael both taste the bread, and neither drops dead even though if there’s enough chloral hydrate in all that bread to knock out a 60-foot-tall man, there should be enough to kill a normal size man after just a small bite. Whatever.

After abandoning a plan to hire Manning to round up all the Bigfoot monsters in the country because he’s too brain injured to remember the details which is not to squash them beyond recognition and allow photographers to take photos of the operation, which may or may not have happened when the Van Meter Visitor (a huge pterodactyl) in Iowa hit town in the early 1900s and flew all over the place munching on the cattle until cowboys and farmers shot it down and then took pictures of it which people claimed they all saw in the local newspaper yet those issues are “not available” for some reason so I guess there’s some kind of Mandela Effect going on or some people are prone to telling “tall tales.”

In the meantime, Manning is being held down by ropes and chains and it’s obvious that he was brain injured in that 700-foot fall in the first encounter. His right eye is missing and some of his teeth are pushed to one side, possibly because of a roundhouse kick by Chuck Norris (himself) who caught him trying to steal his chloral-hydrate enriched Italian bread.

Somehow, Manning is able to pick the locks of his chains using the same hypodermic needle he harpooned somebody with in the first movie and which he hid in his giant adult diapers (yes, those would be Shorty’s Adult Diapers that Big Mo aka John Heim the KCCK radio wizard of the Big Mo Blues Show describes, “they’re ready when you aren’t!).

The action and the dialogue start to get more complicated towards the end, which I’m going to defer on revealing in order to avoid spoilers (OK, the butler did it).

This is an OK movie although the dialogue gets a little stilted toward the end. I give it a 3/5 Shrilling Chicken Rating.

Still Reading Dr. MLK Jr Biographies

I’m just checking in to let you know I’m still reading Jonathan Eig’s biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I’m in the last section. I plan to read The Autobiography of MLK Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson next.

I’m not ready to share much right now in the way of my impressions other than to say that it’s at least as painful to read from an emotional standpoint as the other books by great authors I’ve read and which have prompted visits by invitation to The University of Iowa College of Medicine in the past to present the MLK Jr Distinguished Lectures:

“Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity” by Michele Norris.

“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson (who also wrote “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” which won the Pulitzer Prize).

Our Hidden Conversations by Michele Norris

These are often riveting page turners but I need to take a break every so often because of the terrible events described.

The Extraterrestrial and Mutilated Soybean Hybridization Program in Iowa

After watching a number of TV shows about extraterrestrials (ETs), I had this vivid dream about ETs invading Iowa.

Apparently, I had somehow driven out on some highway that was not clearly marked, maybe Highway 20 which the National Weather Service always mentions as a sort of boundary line between a howling, disastrous tornadimohurricannibalistic storm and utter tranquility a few miles north of us.

I got out of the car and noticed up in the sky a gigantimonguous craft shaped like a triquetra. It was eerily silent as it passed just inches above my head and it glowed multiple colors like the NBC peacock.

Suddenly, 3 beings who resembled the 3 stooges (except their heads were tiny) floated out of the craft and took me hostage. They kept arguing amongst themselves about how they were going to exsanguinate me and then fuse me with a soybean plant they had previously mutilated. Apparently, they had tipped a few cows in the process and slipped in the pasture, falling into an area full of cow pies.

I told them they smelled bad and suggested they try Mando, the deodorant that is nothing like the scented stuff which, if you apply it, is exactly like turning up your car radio when the engine rattles—hey, it just masks the problem.

I guess that hurt their feelings and they told me they were going to stick some kind of implant in my nose so they could track me because they could hear my nose whistle and find me anywhere. I told them I’m allergic to ET implants and I would just sneeze it out. I had them there.

Then they tried to communicate with me telepathically but I knew how to counter that trick. I just thought really hard about good barbecued ribs, which made them hungry. They asked me where they could find a decent rib joint and I told them how to get to Jimmy Jack’s Rib Shack in Iowa City.

So we head on over there and I help them order. They weren’t sure what to drink, so I suggested water because I saw this trick in the movie, Signs. It didn’t work as I expected and they just acted like they were drunk.

Then, of all things, they wanted to go to Area 51, and we just zipped over there. On the way, they picked up Bob Lazar who drew pictures of them. He asked me why they had barbecue sauce all over their faces and I just told him they had bad manners.

Finally, I woke up and I swear I’m going to limit how much kale I eat next time.

Verdict on Kale Salad

Well, Sena served the cranberry kale salad today, along with a hearty vegetable soup. If I had not known that the kale was in the salad, I would not have noticed anything unusual about it.

In fact, the salad was pretty good, although truth be known, the kale was mixed together with so many other veggies and Dijon salad dressing, I wouldn’t have known it was in there.

So, I’m obligated to share the article about kale I read yesterday when I was complaining about kale salad. It’s chock full of vitamins but has hardly any calories.

And it doesn’t turn you into an extraterrestrial.

Comments on Kale and Miracle Whip

Sena got a couple of items at the grocery store that made me raise my eyebrows right off my head. She bought a jar of Miracle Whip, which is good. But she also bought a bag of kale which came with a packet of Dijon dressing (as if that would help!).

She did this on purpose. She bought both of these items with a clear mind—a clearly diabolical mind. I’m fine with the Miracle Whip of course, although she tends to use a lot of other mayo-type products first so it tends to sit in the pantry for a while.

But the kale is a new abomination. And who came up with cranberry kale? It’s a cruel joke. And she’s going to mix it with Dijon dressing? I think that’s against federal law. I know kale has health benefits, but I think that’s offset by a number of negative factors, such as it tends to turn you into an extraterrestrial.

Articles exist that make you think that you can prepare an edible dish using kale, but that is just a government plot. There’s a section on the web with the heading “Is it better to eat kale raw or cooked or burn the stuff?” Look it up.

According to an article from the Mayo Clinic, kale used to be just decorative garnish, which I think was OK. But then people started thinking it was real food and chased after it like zombies hunting for brains.

If you can put Dijon dressing on kale, you ought to be able to put Miracle Whip on it. On the other hand, that would ruin perfectly good Miracle Whip.

Svengoolie Movie: “King Kong vs Godzilla”

I watched the 1962 movie “King Kong vs Godzilla” on the Svengoolie show last night and woke up this morning thinking it had to be a parody. So, I looked it up on the web and sure enough, there’s a Wikipedia article about the film stating director Ishiro Honda said it was a satire of the television industry in Japan.

This movie was pretty ridiculous and there was so much over the top slapstick comedy in it that I couldn’t believe anyone would see it as anything but satire. But the internet has many articles that don’t call it satirical.

I remember Sena watched some of it and asked me last night how I was going to rate it. I said “Zero!” at the time, before I found out it was satire. That was after I’d seen the two characters, Kinsaburo Furue (Yu Fujiki) and Keji Sahaka (Kazuo Fujita) encounter with the island natives who accepted gifts of cigarettes and a transistor radio as a bribe to gain their cooperation.

So, it seems superfluous for me to poke fun of it like I usually do with most of the films on the Svengoolie show. Even he joked about the poor dubbing in this movie.

I’m seeing this as satire and I’d give it a 2.5/5 Shrilling Chicken rating.

Observations on Jonathan Eig’s Martin Luther King Distinguished Lecture

I discovered that the University of Iowa made a video presentation of Jonathan Eig’s speech for the Martin Luther King Distinguished Lecture on January 21, 2026. Mr. Eig wrote the MLK biography, “King: A Life” which was published in 2023. We just got a copy of it along with “The Autobiography Of MLK. We’re reading them now. We both watched the one-hour long video, which is available only in Panopto format to University of Iowa employees who could not attend the event in person.

He’s an engaging, humorous, and humble guy who spoke without using notes and ad libbed the entire talk which covered the most important events and people in King’s life including his wife and several other famous people in the civil rights era of the 1960s.

He had an interesting anecdote about the young National Park Service ranger, Gordon, “Gunny” Gundrum who adjusted King’s microphone repeatedly while he was giving his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington in 1963. It was caught on camera and interpreted by some as an effort to interfere with the speech. In fact, it was because King was only 5’7” tall and his face was obscured by the microphone. Eig questioned him about it (yes, he was still alive) and at first Gundrum didn’t even recall doing it.

Sena wondered why Eig didn’t mention Rosa Parks in his presentation. In his book, he describes her refusal to take a back seat on a city bus as the catalyst for the Montgomery bus boycott, and her role in considerable detail.

On the other hand, Eig pointed out that King’s wife, Coretta, was the one who taught King about activism in the first place since she had been involved doing that before they ever met.

Eig mentioned that King has attempted suicide twice in his adolescence. On the other hand, even though I’m only partway through his book, I recall these were described early and involved being upset about his grandmother on a couple of occasions. One when his brother slid down a banister, hit his grandmother in the head and knocked her out cold. The other was when she actually died. He was not seriously injured in either incident. Eig also shared that King was psychiatrically hospitalized several times. Some suggested he undergo regular outpatient psychiatric treatment, but he declined because of the stigma.

One of his more moving anecdotes was about what King said just before he was gunned down at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis in 1968. King had stepped outside to get some fresh air. It was a cold and one member of his group suggested he go inside and get a jacket. King replied, “Yes, I will.” As he turned to do so, he was shot and killed. The way Eig framed King’s last words made you think of that statement as an affirmation of how he’d responded to the many challenges and demands in his life.

Another Silly Bill in the Iowa Legislature

I saw a story in the Iowa Capital Dispatch by Robin Opsahl today that there’s a bill in the Iowa legislature which seeks to make the drugs ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine over-the-counter (OTC) in Iowa. It doesn’t actually specify the reason why but it’s probably because some Iowans want the drugs available to treat Covid-19. I think the motivation sounds similar to the bills introduced in March of 2025 which were designed to make it illegal to get mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 in Iowa. They both died in funnel week last year.

The bill was discussed yesterday and, while there were 3 commenters in favor of it, there are several reasons to be suspicious of whether it would be a good thing for Iowans. Both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were studied for evidence of efficacy for Covid-19 and the studies failed to show that.

The FDA has made it clear that it doesn’t recommend either ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine for treatment of Covid-19.

However, the Iowa bill HF 2056 seeks to make both available OTC and require pharmacies not only make it available but protect the pharmacist from legal or criminal liability for any harms that might result from its use.

While you can find news stories saying simply that 4 states (Tennessee, Idaho, Arkansas, and Idaho) have adopted similar laws, there is at least one recent follow up news story indicating that the pharmacists still have some reservations.

A Boise, Idaho pharmacist says he’ll dispense ivermectin to callers—as long as they have a doctor’s note. Most callers don’t have a parasitic infection. The pharmacist points out that, while the Idaho law says he can dispense ivermectin without a prescription, the FDA hasn’t approved it to be used this way. “It’s not designed or packaged for retail sale,” according to the pharmacist. It’s not made for OTC use.

There’s also a hitch when it comes to health insurance coverage for OTC drugs, implying you might have to pay out of pocket. Arkansas and Tennessee pharmacists say that, despite the law change allowing OTC sale of ivermectin in their states, they won’t sell it that way.

I hope their example will be followed by the other states who seem to be going the same way as Iowa. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure there might be plenty of conscientious objectors in Iowa who might slow down the legal push to get either hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin OTC.

Just because lawmakers put in a lot of language in a bill in an effort to persuade pharmacists that they won’t get sued or go to jail if they always give the customers what they want doesn’t mean they’ll obey a law based on misinformation and which makes them disobey their principles. I don’t understand how the legislative machinery works but I’m hoping the fate for this bill will be the same as what happened to those from last year.