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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> Country music is hypothesized to nurture a suicidal mood through its 
> concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, such as marital 
> discord, alcohol abuse, and alienation from work.

What a fun subject! These researchers have way too much time on their hands 
or there is too much grant money desperately seeking a study, any study, no 
matter how useless.

Nashville, the country music capital, had a 2002 suicide rate of 15.1 per 
100,000. Unemployment is hands-down the strongest national motivator for 
suicide: New York City, where unemployment and poverty are endemic, but 
where country music is so-so, is at 18.3 suicides per 100k. Btw, while 
we're still in the slums of the East, in 2003 our nation's capitol 
experienced a murder rate of 44.2 per 100,000 population. San Francisco's 
suicide rate is the highest; read unhappy gay men who kill themselves at 
several times the national rate of 10.4 per 100k (1999-2000). Those seeking 
more proof of the insanity of the recent unfortunate presidential vote will 
find much ammunition on the state suicide map at 
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/jun28/data.html

Suicide rates increase dramatically when widely reported in the media. 
Apparently our focus is manipulable. Duh. So let's stop talking about 
suicide. I need all the support I can get.