That Hideous Strength, part II

*WARNING* The story linked to in this post may be upsetting to some readers. It contains no graphic content or images, but the subject matter is extremely disturbing.

Good God.

There are simply no words adequate to describe the monstrosity of these actions. We euthanize dogs and cats because it is our duty to make sure they do not suffer needlessly. To euthanize a newborn child is murder. And if I may rebut this claim:

"Measures that might marginally extend a child's life by minutes or hours or days or weeks are stopped. This happens routinely, namely, every day," said Lance Stell, professor of medical ethics at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., and staff ethicist at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. "Everybody knows that it happens, but there's a lot of hypocrisy. Instead, people talk about things they're not going to do."

More than half of all deaths occur under medical supervision, so it's really about management and method of death, Stell said.

this is not the same thing as terminating life support or stopping a treatment. To stick a needle in a vein and push the plunger is to actively participate in the ending of a life. When you pull the plug on the baby's breathing apparatus, you are letting things take their natural course. When you give the baby a lethal dose of sedatives, you are forcing death upon the child. There is a difference between artificially extending a life and artificially ending one, and the latter should never be equated with the former.

What's wrong with rabbits?

My grandpa always said that the EPA was one of our nation's greatest enemies, and it's looking more and more like he's right. Not only do they attempt to cripple industry with ridiculous and overzealous regulations, some of their latest techniques, outlined in a recent article, used human subjects as guinea pigs to test the effects of pesticides on living organisms. The kicker is that they were going to use poor families, who are less likely to be educated and to understand the potential negative effects their participation in these studies could have on them and their children. The families were offered money and electronics for the participation in the study, which would have investigated how childrens' bodies absorb pesticides. While the EPA backed away from the study, citing ethical concerns, one has to wonder what made them think it was a good idea in the first place? I mean seriously, what ever happened to using actual guinea pigs?

The 10th Brother

Much was made of the nine veterans who stood by John Kerry as his "band of brothers" during the 2004 presidential race, and much was done to smear the dozens of other veterans who worked to make sure JK never got the presidency. All of them came under hostile fire for their efforts and most came away fairly unscathed, but some, like this man, were wounded. I'm going to do my best to spread this man's story on the blogosphere; when bloggers get together and rally around a cause, great things can be done. I've seen people get jobs, have their medical bills paid and find legal assistance because someone with a Web site decided that this was a cause worth helping. If you don't have a blog, email this aticle to some people. Those willing to speak out for what's right should be rewarded, not punished.

An interesting note: while writing the above paragraphs, I started to misspell "band of brothers" as "brand of brothers." Ironically, this is just what was created during Kerry's campaign: he took men who had served with him and turned them into marketing devices.

T-day minus 2

I'm going home for Thanksgiving break in about twenty minutes, so I have to get my required daily post in now. My mom's got bean soup waiting for me at home, and I don't have to drive, which is good 'cause I just got off work and I'm tired. Anyway, I'll be back and posting in about five days (Sunday or Monday, probably). I'll try to have that many days' worth of posts ready to publish by the time I get back.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Uh . . . wha?

Something about this article struck me as funny. It took me a minute to put my finger on it, and then I realized: the artists claimed that "possession is the enemy of freedom," and yet they've got the money to pay for the enitre project, plus $3 million to donate? Somebody needs to instruct them on the whole "actions speak louder than words" concept.