My name is Catherine Morgan, I'm a writer, nurse, mother, and founder of "The Political Voices of Women". This is a blog dedicated to inform and educate the voting public through articles, ideas, and links. It's also a way of giving myself a voice, rather than just sitting back and watching politics and my opinion go by.
--- I am now also at the Care2 Election Blog.
Did you hear the news about the Ricin scare in Las Vegas? What is up with that? Why did it take two weeks before anyone even noticed? Isn’t it kinda scary how easy it was for this guy to be hospitalized since February 14th, before anyone found out he had been exposed (and possibly could have exposed others) to Ricin?
A person who inhales even the tiniest bit of ricin (the aforementioned 500 microgram lethal dose translates to an amount roughly the size of the head of a pin) will suffer severe respiratory symptoms followed by pulmonary edema, low blood pressure and possibly death.
Ingesting the chemical produces a different set of dire symptoms, which include vomiting, bloody diarrhea, hallucinations, seizures and… you guessed it… death.
Interesting historical note: ricin was used in the nasty, Soviet-spy-style murder of Bulgarian journalist Georgi Markov in 1978. The attacker struck Markov with an umbrella that had been hacked to inject a pellet of ricin beneath his skin.
So, back to the Las Vegas hotel incident. The man who had been staying in the room where the ricin was found was hospitalized with respiratory symptoms on February 14th, but made no mention (perhaps for obvious reasons) of having been exposed to the poison. It’s still unclear what or who was the intended target of the chemical. Authorities suspect that some sort of sinister action was planned, although there’s no evidence that it was terrorism-related. The man remains in critical condition.
Ricin is supposed to be one of the most toxic substances on the planet. Derived from the processing of castor beans, a pinhead of the lethal substance can kill a person.
A spokesman for the F.B.I. says the incident does not appear to be terror related, although authorities acknowledge there is no “legal or proper reason for any ordinary person to possess ricin.”
So far, this is turning out to be a real mystery. And even though they are saying it had nothing to do with terrorism, I imagine it must be terrifying to the people potentially exposed to this stuff.
Ever looked under the bed in your hotel room? My partner always takes a look before we check out, but I’m not courageous enough - I don’t want to know what else is under there.
A man found more than he expected this morning in his Las Vegas hotel room when he found a small bag of castor beans and Ricin, a deadly poison.
This Ricin scare raises several questions…How easy is it for someone to make this stuff? Can any crazy, psycho-nut, killer, make Ricin? Or does it take a sophisticated, scientifically inclined, psycho-nut? And, if he didn’t make it himself…How easy is it to buy this stuff? I’m sure we will be learning more in the days to come.
So…What do you think about this story? Does it make you worry? Do you have a sick curiosity over the mystery of it all? A little of both? Have you heard anything new on this?
Is Lethal Injection Cruel and Unusual Punishment? - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog)
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the method of execution used in most states violates the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Death penalty critics had hoped that the court would declare unconstitutional the use of a three-drug compound that has been the standard means of execution since the early 1980s. They say the use of a paralyzing drug could mask the fact that the condemned man may suffer searing pain when given a heart-stopping drug.
Let me begin by saying that I am not a proponent of the death penalty. However, I do believe that if you are going to have a “punishment” by death, the person being punished should NOT be granted a procedure that is not afforded to the most sick and dying of our own population.
Justice Antonin Scalia said states have been careful to adopt procedures that do not seek to inflict pain and should not be barred from carrying out executions even if prison officials sometimes make mistakes in administering drugs. “There is no painless requirement” in the Constitution, Scalia said. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito also indicated their support for the states’ procedures.
This is what the death row inmates are asking for…
More problems associated with vaccines, this time the controversy is with the Chicken Pox vaccine. I haven’t been silent about my distrust with the pharmaceutical industry, and most recently with the collaboration between this industry and our government…specifically the rush to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for 9 to 12 year old girls. As much as I have a problem with *some* vaccines, I have a much larger problem with our government forcing parents to vaccinate for viruses such as Chicken Pox and HPV.
I am not someone who is against childhood vaccinations, as a nurse I fully understand the necessity for vaccinating children against polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. However, vaccinating against these diseases was begun for the sole purpose of saving the lives of children, that can not be said for most of the newer vaccines (Flu, HPV, Chicken Pox, Hepatitis, etc). The sole purpose for pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines today, is for one purpose and one purpose only…money (and a lot of it). I wont be able to go into each one in detail for this post (maybe in a future one), but here are a few statistics to just give you an idea of what I am talking about.
But now, let me talk specifically about the Chicken Pox vaccine and this latest controversy.
In Maryland parents are being threatened with fines and jail if they do not comply with vaccinating their children for chicken pox. Does anyone NOT see how insane that sounds? What the bleepidy-bleep is going on????
Speaking as one of the lucky ones, who lived through “The Great Chicken Pock Pandemic” of the 1970’s…oh wait, there was no pandemic and everyone I knew got the chicken pox and a couple days off from school, and actually lived to tell the tale. For those of us old enough to remember having the chicken pox…The memories are horrifying…the pustules, the itch, the dreaded calamine lotion. If you haven’t been through it yourself, you can not begin to imagine what we suffered with for those never ending couple of days. [My attempt as sarcasm…I know, don’t quit my day job.]
Seriously now. When my children were born (and at that time the vaccine was not yet mandatory), the pediatrician told me about it, and I decided that if my children weren’t exposed to the virus before they would be attending school, then I would consider it. [CHOICE…it’s a beautiful thing, but becoming more and more rare in our society.] My reservations had nothing to do with a possible adverse reaction to the vaccine…It was the fact that, getting chicken pox as a child is not serious, and getting the virus actually gives a life-long immunity (the vaccine does not). I also wondered why anyone would consider this vaccine, when there was already an anti-viral medication available, that reduced the severity of the symptoms and cut the duration of the illness?
Today’s American prison system creates a “revolving door” – inmates are released without any job prospects and in most cases, without any place to go. No one will hire an ex-con, especially one who has been convicted of murder, rape, etc. Released convicts therefore resort to living on the streets — increasing the crime rate and lowering property values. This is a common fact.
AP: Reporting that Lewis (Scooter) Libby Prison Sentence Commuted by President.
Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former Chief of Staff to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, arrives for his sentencing hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington in this June 5, 2007 file photo. Libby, a former vice presidential aide, on July 2, 2007 lost his bid to delay serving his 2 1/2-year prison sentence while he appeals his conviction in the CIA leak case. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files (UNITED STATES)
To the more than 10,000 law enforcement agencies who use them, Taser-style stun guns probably seem like a godsend — a quick jolt of electricity and even the brawniest and most berserk criminal can be brought to the ground. No guns, no deaths and no permanent damage….
However, a CrunchGear investigation paints a different picture. Not only have at least 167 people died after being Tasered, according to The Arizona Republic (although the number of these deaths that can be directly attributed to the weapons is disputed), but there appears to be an aggressive effort by the company to silence critics and to control data and, on occasion, manipulate statistics with the intent of preserving an illusion of safety surrounding its products. ……………..
…………………………………………Even Taser’s harshest critics acknowledge that being shocked is highly preferable to a gunshot. The problem seems to be that in its proactive presentation of the products as nearly-harmless — through a combination of suing critics (effectively silencing potential critics), controlling relevant research, and offering Taser shocks to anybody who passes by its booths at conventions — the public perception of Tasers becomes one of a device that is entirely non-lethal, making their misuse inevitable. Just ask Mustafa Tabatabainejad. — READ THE FULL ARTICLE
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I think even more important than the belief of the “harmlessness” of the taser, we need to be even more concerned about the “misuse” of this weapon by law enforcement. When law enforcement is under a misconception that these weapons are safe to use, they are going to use them much more often, and I don’t mean against people that they would have ordinarily used a gun on. This will (and in some cases, has already become), the “easy” way to subdue someone, it’s a slippery slope.
Businesses in Colombia often pay right-wing paramilitary militias, which were formed in the 1980s to help protect private property from Marxist rebels at war with the state since the 1960s.
Both groups, labeled terrorists by Washington, are locked in a war over lucrative cocaine-producing land in which they extort businesses and kill peasants accused of cooperating with the other side. — Read Full MSNBC Article
U.S. President George W. Bush, right, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, left, during an arrival ceremony at Hacienda Temozon, in Temozon Sur, Mexico, Tuesday, March 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Mexico Pushes Bush For More In Drug War — Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized the U.S’s planned 700-mile border fence and said Bush must do more to curb American drug appetites.
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WHAT????????? Isn’t this another one of those wars we have already lost? Check out this clock that calculates the amount of money we are spending on this war. It would most definitely be more cost effective to make money available to treat people addicted to drugs, than it is to pay for them to sit in jail. But really………..What is Bush suppose to do to, “curb the appetite” of American drug users?????????? This is one case that I say…..”give the guy I break”.
Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former Chief of Staff to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, arrives for his sentencing hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington in this June 5, 2007 file photo. Libby, a former vice presidential aide, on July 2, 2007 lost his bid to delay serving his 2 1/2-year prison sentence while he appeals his conviction in the CIA leak case. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/Files (UNITED STATES)
