Presumably because employees of the American government have become so damn laughable to people around the globe, the city of Washington, DC is installing in its metro stations friendly reminders for its citizens to value their own lives. Drawn in by new, "fun" games like hopscotch (at left) and I Spy, depressed commuters in our nation's capital will then be tricked into reading this cheerful slogan: "Life is fun. Keep on living. Use caution around the tracks." Ironically, one way to exercise caution around the tracks is to not play hopscotch on the fucking slippery platforms.

Lucky us, we don't need fancy safety warnings in the subways here in New York, where the human feces and urine soaking the tracks are more than enough of a reminder that we don't wanna go in there.

There has been quite a bit of attention paid recently to mental illnesses in the black community. The stigma surrounding depression and suicidal thoughts keeps many from seeking much-needed help. Alvin Poussaint and Amy Alexander wrote a book highlighting this issue and explaining that people can't expect to deal with these issues alone.

In the book, Lay My Burden Down, noted Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Dr. Alvin Poussaint and writer Amy Alexander analyze how much of the Black community - determined to be victors, not victims - strive to downplay issues of mental illness, depression and resulting suicides within the culture.

"It is very much a misperception that Black people don't commit suicide and that comes in part from a need, the very real and legitimate need, for Black people, for many years to be very strong," Alexander is quoted as saying in a book review by HealthyPlace.com. Alexander had an older brother who committed suicide.

"They [Blacks] see mental disorder and depression as a sign of personal weakness or moral failure," said Alexander, who considered her brother's slow and painful death from heroin abuse as a precipitated form of suicide.

Although whites are more than 10 times more likely to commit suidice than blacks, studies show that a black American commits suicide every 4.5 hours in the United States. [LW]

• Whoopi Goldberg's bringing a musical about Ada "Bricktop" Smith, who I really should have written a "Daily Dose of BHM" about, to Broadway. [EUR]

• Akon's releasing a country album that no one will buy. [C&D]

• 50 Cent is now torn between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. What on earth will we do? [MTV]

• Black suicides on the rise? That sucks. [NPR]

• Brooklyn rapper Papoose plans to marry his lover Remy Ma while she's in prison. In other words, he's riding on the coattails of her publicity. [MTV]

LESSONS NOT LEARNED A Korean-American Virginia Tech student — haunted by his perceived resemblance to the mass murderer that terrorized the school last spring — shot himself in the head five weeks after two of his friends contacted the school to warn them that he had a gun and was considering suicide. The student had also stopped going to class in September. Clearly, VT has been tragically slow in getting those new safeguards into place.

• Something else the church prevents in the black community: youth smoking.

• Why commit suicide when you're going to die sooner than everyone else, anyway!

• Unhealthy sleep patterns among African Americans may contribute to the well-documented health differences between blacks and other races.

• Doctors don't know who the hell is the most eligible for the HPV vaccine.

• "Vaginal rejuvenation" surgery is neither safe nor recommended, which is just shocking news to me.

Being a non-churchgoer with zero suicidal tendencies, I'm incredulous about fascinated by a recent study that indicates black people would commit suicide more if it weren't for the church.

Calvin White, another professor at Arkansas, points to such leaders as the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who have a major influence on Black society.

"It's no coincidence," White said, "that these men are all ministers and the position of the church as a leader, although perhaps declining slightly, is still huge among Blacks."

The suicide rate for White Americans is about three times that of their African American counterparts. Part of that is due to the fact that the Black experience is rooted in overcoming obstacles, he said.

There are probably many cultural reasons why suicide is not as prevalent among blacks, and one of them could very well be the influence of the church. But I think that has to be very hard thing to measure and prove in an academic study. Also, why doesn't the church keep us from murdering each other?

I need to check the funding for this research. If Bishop TD Jakes was behind it, I know what's up.

[BET]