This story is very interesting–”Doctor charged with hastening death of donor.” When I read the headline I thought–see, this is why I’m not an organ donor–I don’t want doctors profiting on my organs when I can’t. But reading the actual story the situation is more complex than merely speeding up death to harvest the organs. According to the story:

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 33, prescribed excessive amounts of morphine and Ativan and injected the topical antiseptic Betadine into Ruben Navarro’s stomach in February 2006, prosecutors in San Luis Obispo County said. Navarro, 26, who was severely disabled mentally and physically, had suffered respiratory and cardiac arrest and had been taken off life support, authorities said.

That puts the story in a completely different light. I’m all for massive doses to morphine to end my life after I have been taken off life support. I don’t see the need to linger around when death is near.

If you want a real reason to complain about Bush, here’s a good example–in 2004, when John Ashcroft was still Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales as White House Counsel visited Ashcroft in the hospital to pressure Ashcroft to reauthorize Bush’s wiretapping program. Ashcroft refused.

If you want a real reason to complain about Bush, this is a good one.

I’m concerned about the state of Bush haters. I’m afraid that many have lost their grip on reality. Today I was reading one of my favorite websites, Reddit, and I came across a link to this new Executive Order. The way that Reddit works is that someone submits and article and the article can be voted up or down and you can comment on the article. In the comments I’m shocked at just how unhinged some people become when Bush is involved. Here’s an example:

…but I’m fearing that he’ll pull some last minute executive order that keeps him in power even when his term should be up.

And:

Yes I hope he leaves office, but if a sudden terrorism-related emergency were to occur near the elections that caused Bush to declare a state of emergency and “temporarily” cancel election, it just wouldn’t surprise me anymore.

I’m a bit concerned for America. There are plenty of valid reasons to complain about the President, but there is no way Bush will try to stay in office after the next election. That’s just silly.

If this ad isn’t enough to get you to switch to Geico, I don’t know what is.

Jack Shafer at Slate has written an interesting article about how Green Journalism is the new Yellow Journalism. He notes that part of the Green Catechism is that buying locally-grown food is more environmentally friendly. The truth is far more complex than that. For example, even the BBC realizes that in the UK, it uses less energy to buy tomatoes imported from Spain, than local tomatoes grown in a greenhouse.

I wish that many environmentalists would truly demonstrate the strength of their convictions. This morning, for example, I saw a bumper sticker that read, “Teach Respect for the Earth and All Living Creatures” on a car. I noticed that the car had dead inspects smashed on the front of the car. How does someone respect “all living creatures” by indiscriminately killing some of them with their car? Aren’t insects “creatures”?

Honestly, if you truly respect “all living creatures” then what about the insects? Why does it seem that it’s okay to indiscriminately kill animals with your car as long as they are small and non-cute.

One case study is the Humane Society. Check out their webpage. Where are the pictures of insects on the Human Society’s webpage? Why are there only cute or charismatic animals like kittens, dogs, kangaroos, or baby seals? Don’t they care about the insects? They claim:

We seek to forge a lasting and comprehensive change in human consciousness of and behavior toward all animals in order to prevent animal cruelty, exploitation, and neglect, and to protect wild habitats and the entire community of life.

If they truly believed this when what about the poor insects? Worst of all, many people who work at the Humane Society drive cars to work (I walk past their offices on the way to work). Why is it okay for them to murder poor insects with their cars if they truly care about preventing animal cruelty?

If you are going to preach to me about respecting all living things, then you better not kill creatures. If you truly care about “all living creatures”� you should carefully walk everywhere you go instead of selfishly killing creatures with your car.

I had a little problem with the domain server, but now we are back in full effect. Tomfoolery to follow.

Mickey Mantle.