toying with vernon, dueling senators, europe's slow death, and a pharmacist's conscience...

vernon evans was moved from death row to a cell closer to the execution chamber...is that really necessary? so after being moved from death row, to even more death row...and preparing himself to be killed by the government in an effort to show that killing is reprehensible (??), he got his stay. another round of appeals to be heard...another shot to remove yet another stain on the criminal justice system in this country...let's hope they get it right...

things are getting interesting on capital hill as a result of attempts by both sides to "reform" lobbying in congress. (we all know these people will not seriously do anything that may damage the vast amount of gifts and useless crap they receive from [insert your favorite special interest here] because if they did, who would want to be in congress anymore?). apparently john "if-only-republicans-had-picked-him-six-years-ago" mccain had a meeting with some republicans and a few democrats trying to pull some sort of bill out of both sides from the latest corruption scandal. barack "please-god-don't-let-him-get-sucked-into-the-washington-way-of-doing-things" obama was there. afterwards it appears obama really pissed off mccain by maybe, possibly, not really sure if he did, pulling out of the "bipartisan" (adj. meaning we are really all the same anyways, if you've got money we're listening) efforts to reform the mess that is politics as usual in america. find the story and read mccain's letter to obama...it is pretty amusing...but here is a summary..."forgive me for thinking you were sincere in your efforts to not be a jackass, now i know you only care about yourself...good luck bitch." obama's reply is not as amusing...a little less angry too. either way...god i hope these guys run against each other for the next presidential election...imagine it, a choice, two people worth voting for...(sigh) we can dream. in the meantime it's good to have transparency in the process...

europe's population is shrinking. parents are averaging far below what they need to to keep the population up...and so governments are considering tax incentives and other things for people to knock up and get knocked up. hmmm...not sure i see the logic in this. overpopulation worldwide, overpopulation which inevitably leads to some things nobody likes, such as disease, crime, poverty, environmental disaster...so we finally get "advanced" enough to slow down the earth's agonizing death, and we decide we need to turn it around. maybe they are just taking their cue from america and it's attempt to return to the past and eras of population explosions...like the gilded age, manifest destiny...you know...the good days...

walgreens is getting sued by some pharmacists who were fired when they wouldn't sign something that said they would deal out the day after pill. they are claiming it is a violation of illinois' "conscience" law which allows health care workers to refuse to do shit if they find it wrong on religious or moral grounds or something like that (i admit...i haven't read the law). this seems a little problematic to me...health care workers able to refuse treatment based upon religious beliefs...if you've got a problem doing it...get out of the business. and doesn't that totally go against the hypocratic oath (sp?)...imagine if public defenders were allowed to refuse to assist a defendant because he was accused of rape or murder. of course, judging by the amount of "how can you defend those people" questions i get...this country would probably support that...but then they complain about their phone being tapped...pick a side on the civil rights debate people, either everyone gets them, or nobody does. this whole "my religious beliefs trump all" thing is going way too far...unless you are mormon, because the correct answer is mormon.

now that i'm older, my heart's colder and i can see that it's a lie...