Daily Blend: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 – The Re-linkening

Consider this a continuation of my previous “wrap-up” post as the dust continues to settle. There’s plenty of good and a smidgeon of bad, so hold onto your butts:

The good —

LGBT: Last night was a major win for equality with same-sex marriage passing by popular vote in three states (and a constitutional ban failing in a fourth), the election of the first-ever openly lesbian senator, and the fall of anti-gay candidates everywhere like flies.

Meanwhile, in the schadenfreude department, Sen. Scott “racist” Brown (R-MA) and Rep. Joe “deadbeat dad” Walsh (R-IL) are both kicked out.

Oh, and Troy, Michigan’s notoriously homophobic mayor, Janice Daniels, is also out on her bigoted ass.
(via Joe. My. God.)

New Hampshire: I wonder how many men feel discomfited now that both state senators, both representatives, and the governor are all women?

Florida: The Sunshine State did particularly well, with voters turning down abortion restrictions, killing a ban on Obamacare’s health insurance mandate, and preventing taxpayer money from going to churches and religious schools. Upholding abortion rights, healthcare reform and secularism all in one – not to shabby for a state renowned for its zaniness.

More good Floridian news: Rep. Allen West (R) will soon be Rep. no longer, possibly as a result of all that crazy shit he’s always spewing.

Atheism: While the only openly atheist Congressperson, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), lost his seat after decades of serving the progressive community, candidate Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), rumored to be both an atheist and bisexual, is winning, though her opponent isn’t conceding yet.

Drug Laws: Massachusetts approves medicinal marijuana, though a similar initiative fails in Arkansas.

So, all in all, I guess this means those polls weren’t skewed against Republicans after all.
(via Joe. My. God.)

And finally, we can safely say that yes, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver is (probably) a witch. (Or just very good with statistical analysis. Either way.)

Religious parents refuse to let terminal daughter die in peace

Grace Lee, then and now

Grace Sung Eun Lee is in a bad place. She’s terminally ill with a brain-stem tumor that’s left her completely paralyzed from the neck-down, requiring her to use tubes to eat and breathe. The only way she can still communicate is by mouthing words and nodding her head. As such, she’s made it quite clear that she no longer wants to be kept alive artificially and wants to pass away in peace.

Unfortunately, her parents aren’t willing to respect her final wish, as it would conflict with their religious beliefs.

The doctors at Long Island's North Shore University Hospital said they would like to respect Lee's wishes and remove her feeding and breathing tubes. But Lee's devout parents -- religious Korean immigrants -- had argued that would be suicide and would keep her from going to heaven. The filed legal motions to stop the hospital from removing the tube.

"I believe if you set the day and time of your death, you're committing suicide and that is a sin," said Lee's father, the Rev. Manho Lee, through an interpreter on Thursday

Because when you’re religious, that means your beliefs must be imposed upon everyone else, regardless of their own beliefs and desires. It’s for their own good.

Thankfully, the courts have now ruled in favor of Lee’s right to end her own life on her terms. But incredibly, the challenge still isn’t over, as Lee’s parents have vowed to continue obstructing their daughter’s right to bodily autonomy for as long as they can with further legal motions.

Perhaps most telling of all is this revealing little tidbit:

Speaking at a news conference in their attorney's office Thursday, the minister and his wife, Jin-ah Lee, claimed their always-obedient daughter who headed a youth group at their church in Queens would never willingly end her God-given life and that she had been unduly influenced by doctors.

There’s no reason to doubt that Grace was all against ending her own life before she turned in favor of it. That’s the thing with suddenly finding yourself in the wretched position where staying alive has become unbearable and without any hope that your situation will ever improve – it has a curious knack for making you reconsider your priorities.

Grace Lee has suffered enough. Any further attempts at keeping her alive aren’t only cruel, they’re an utter betrayal of her right to personal autonomy. Oblige her final wishes and let her die in peace already.

(via @BreakingNews)

Daily Blend: Thursday, August 23, 2012 [1/2]

Tony Nicklinson

I managed to forget all about posting yesterday’s Daily Blend, so enjoy this double digest edition! (Part 1/2; stupid label length limits. Part 2 here.)

Not all evil originates in malice. Mindless adherence to heartless legal principles does the job just fine. (Update: Tony Nicklinson ^[pictured] finally passed away of pneumonia a week later.)

Meanwhile, British “pro-lifer” Richard Carvath devotes 2,700 “love”-filled words to calling Nicklinson a “selfish”, “dishonorable” “coward” and smearing those who wanted him to have the right to die on his own terms as a pro-“murder” “lobby”. Also, Jesus.
(via @RichardDawkins)

Hearteningly positive and insightful write-up about Atheism+ at the New Statesman.
(via @jennifurret)

Guess which virulently homophobic, “traditional values” preacher is now caught in a terribly embarrassing sex scandal today?

Once more debunking the patently false claim that nonreligious people are less charitable than believers are. Maybe if poll-takers stopped considering money given to fatten preachers’ wallets as “charity”?

Record-setting petty fascism leads an Oklahoma high school to refuse to give top student her diploma because she said “hell” in her valedictorian speech.
(via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Tony Nicklinson • quadriplegia • quadriplegics • High Court of Justice • paralysis • pneumonia • euthanasia • Richard Carvath • pro-life • pro-lifers • Atheism+ • A+ • New Statesman • Jennifer McCreight • Greta Christina • atheists • Grant Storms • preachers • sex scandals • family values • traditional values • charity • The Chronicles of Philanthropy • nontheists • religious nones • theists • believers • nonbelievers • Prague, OK • Kaitlin Nootbaar • Prague High School • Rick Martin

Canadian court strikes down assisted suicide ban

Canada just keeps making me prouder (or more relieved) to live here. Earlier today, the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that the country’s ban against doctor-assisted suicide is discriminatory against terminally ill and disabled people because it prohibits them from ending their lives if they wish without assistance:

In her judgment, Smith speaks directly to the situation faced by Gloria Taylor, a BC woman with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, who was one of five plaintiffs seeking to overturn the legislation.

Suicide itself is not illegal. But as such, Smith says the law contravenes Section 15 of the Charter, which guarantees equality, because it denies physically disabled people like Taylor the same rights as able-bodied people who can take their own lives.

“The impact of that distinction is felt particularly acutely by persons such as Ms. Taylor, who are grievously and irremediably ill, physically disabled or soon to become so, mentally competent and who wish to have some control over their circumstances at the end of their lives,” Smith writes. “The distinction is discriminatory … because it perpetuates disadvantage.”

Smith also says the law deprives both people like Taylor and those who try to help them of the right to life and liberty guaranteed under Section 7 of the Charter. She argues the legislation could force a person to take their life sooner than they want to in order to kill themselves while still physically capable.

Specifically, the repeal would only apply to “competent, fully-informed, non-ambivalent adult persons who personally (not through a substituted decision-maker) request physician-assisted death, are free from coercion and undue influence and are not clinically depressed”, which should (albeit predictably won’t) assuage critics’ fears about abusing the system, such as is allegedly occurring in the Netherlands.

Additionally, the ruling will only go into effect after a period of one year to give Parliament time to draw up the appropriate legislation. Meanwhile, this new decision contradicts a previous ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, which all but guarantees that the issue will end up being appealed pending a final resolution at some point in the future. Given the increasingly narrow margin in favor of the ban and the mounting pressure to repeal it, I consider myself cautiously optimistic.

(additional info via Rob F)

Tags: assisted suicide • Canada • British Columbia • British Columbia Supreme Court • Supreme Court of Canada • Lynn Smith • Gloria Taylor

Georgia Supreme Court overturns assisted suicide restrictions

Terminal patients in the Peach State now have one more way out:

The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous ruling found that the law violates the free speech clauses of the U.S. and Georgia constitution. It means that four members of the Final Exit Network who were charged in February 2009 with helping a 58-year-old cancer-stricken man die won't have to stand trial, defense attorneys said.

Georgia law doesn't expressly forbid assisted suicide. But lawmakers in 1994 adopted a law that bans people from publicly advertising suicide, hoping to prevent assisted suicide from the likes of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the late physician who sparked the national right-to-die debate.

The law makes it a felony for anyone who "publicly advertises, offers or holds himself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose."

The court's opinion, written by Justice Hugh Thompson, found that lawmakers could have imposed a ban on all assisted suicides with no restriction of free speech, or sought to prohibit all offers to assist in suicide that were followed by the act. But lawmakers decided to do neither, he said.

"The State has failed to provide any explanation or evidence as to why a public advertisement or offer to assist in an otherwise legal activity is sufficiently problematic to justify an intrusion on protected speech rights," the ruling said.

Kudos to Georgia for being the latest state to recognize, in practice if not in theory, that giving people the right to life inherently implies allowing them to end their lives when they see fit.

(via @BreakingNews)

Tags: Georgia • assisted suicide • Final Exit Network • Georgia Supreme Court • Hugh Thompson

Canadian senator: Inmates should have the right to suicide

Sen. Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu (C-Qc)

A Conservative Canadian senator has apparently created a bit of a fuss after letting slip a comment about letting prison inmates hang themselves in their cells:

A Canadian senator has said imprisoned murderers should have the "right to a rope in their cell".

Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, a Conservative senator, later backtracked from the statement, which came a month after two Canadians charged but not convicted of murder were found dead in jail.

Canada abolished the use of capital punishment in 1976.

Mr Boisvenu founded a victims' rights group after his 27-year-old daughter was raped and murdered in 2002.

[…]

Mr Boisvenu made his comments to reporters ahead of a meeting of the Conservative caucus.

"Each assassin should have the right to a rope in his cell to make a decision about his or her life," he said. He serves on the committee currently reviewing Canada's omnibus crime bill.

Of course, the morality police came down on him like a sack of bricks and he soon retracted his comments and apologized.

Now, I’m probably the last person you’d expect to defend a right-winger’s inflammatory remarks, but the truth is that I just don’t think what Boisvenu said was all that unethical or controversial. Granted, it sounds like a “heat of the moment” sort of thing, and it was a bit poorly phrased, but the general idea – that inmates should have the right to end their own lives as they see fit – is one I can absolutely get behind. Not only is it a practical concept, given the growing issue of prison overcrowding and the exorbitant costs of the long process leading up to state-sanctioned executions, but it is also a moral one on two levels – first because it certainly offers many long-term inmates a preferable option to wasting away for decades behind bars, and second because everyone has (or should have) both the right to life and the right to end it.

Assisted suicide is compassionate, forced living is not

Douglas Noble

This is the first time I’ve ever seen the argument that love and caring are why people shouldn’t be allowed to die on their own terms. From Douglas Noble, writing at the British Medical Journal:

Perhaps, though, it is ultimately because of an inability to accept that suffering is an integral part of our world, common to all who share the human condition. Dealing a fatal injection and dressing it up as dignity is not a solution to suffering and pain. High quality palliative care is part of the answer, but so too is the effect of the affection, love, and commitment (sometimes over long periods of time) that we can show to one another when the worst hand is dealt.

So, in short: “Suffering from a debilitating or terminal illness with no hope of recovery? Too bad. Just stay in pain while people get to watch you lovingly as you slowly waste away. No taking the easy way out for you!”

I’ve never seen such a hideously amoral sentiment disguised as compassion before. See, here’s the thing: Accepting that suffering is an unavoidable part of life does not translate to standing aside and letting people agonize endlessly if we have the means to take away their pain. Yes, people get hurt, they fall ill, and many even become terminal, but our moral imperative is to help them, and if we are unable to do so, or if they want something other, then the least we can do – other than absolutely nothing, which is what assisted suicide opponents advocate in every practical sense – is to offer them the means to help themselves, even if that means allowing them to end an existence that has become unbearable.

This is the biggest problem with those who rail against human euthanasia. When all other options run out, the only solution they offer is to stand by the side of the suffering, gently hold their hand and smile all benignly at them whilst forcing them to linger on for ever longer, effectively preventing them from receiving the help they so desperately need. While this may assuage their consciences by deluding themselves into thinking they’re doing the right thing, it does nothing beneficial whatsoever for those whose lives have become an endless and inescapable torment. Forcing someone to live against their will is neither noble nor compassionate. It is rather the epitome of selfishness and heartlessness: prioritizing their own beliefs about the supposed sanctity of life over the needs of others. It is cruel and nothing more, regardless of however well-meaning they may be.

(via The Agitator)

Tags: Douglas Noble • assisted suicide • humane euthanasia

Study debunks “slippery slope” argument against assisted suicide

One of the more common arguments used against assisted suicide/humane euthanasia (a right for which I’ve made no secret of my vehement support) is that allowing people to end their own lives on their own terms will somehow lead to doctors taking more patients’ lives without their valid consent. But this new report from the Royal Society of Canada utterly demolishes this slippery slope, concluding that allowing long-suffering patients to end their own lives is not only a moral imperative, but also demonstrably cuts down on rates of non-consensual euthanasia:

Last month, an expert panel of the Royal Society of Canada, chaired by Udo Schüklenk, a professor of bioethics at Queens University, released a report on decision-making at the end of life.^{[PDF, 2.43 MB]} The report provides a strong argument for allowing doctors to help their patients to die, provided that the patients are competent and freely request such assistance.

The ethical basis of the panel’s argument is not so much the avoidance of unnecessary suffering in terminally ill patients, but rather the core value of individual autonomy or self-determination. “The manner of our dying,” the panel concludes, “reflects our sense of what is important just as much as do the other central decisions in our lives.” In a state that protects individual rights, therefore, deciding how to die ought to be recognized as such a right.

The report also offers an up-to-date review of how assistance by physicians in ending life is working in the “living laboratories” – the jurisdictions where it is legal. In Switzerland, as well as in the US states of Oregon, Washington, and Montana, the law now permits physicians, on request, to supply a terminally ill patient with a prescription for a drug that will bring about a peaceful death. In The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, doctors have the additional option of responding to the patient’s request by giving the patient a lethal injection.

The panel examined reports from each of these jurisdictions, with the exception of Montana (where legalization of assistance in dying occurred only in 2009, and reliable data are not yet available). In The Netherlands, voluntary euthanasia accounted for 1.7% of all deaths in 2005 – exactly the same level as in 1990. Moreover, the frequency of ending a patient’s life without an explicit request from the patient fell by half during the same period, from 0.8% to 0.4%.

Indeed, several surveys suggest that ending a patient’s life without an explicit request is much more common in other countries, where patients cannot lawfully ask a doctor to end their lives. In Belgium, although voluntary euthanasia rose from 1.1% of all deaths in 1998 to 1.9% in 2007, the frequency of ending a patient’s life without an explicit request fell from 3.2% to 1.8%. In Oregon, where the Death with Dignity Act has been in effect for 13 years, the annual number of physician-assisted deaths has yet to reach 100 per year, and the annual total in Washington is even lower.

Daily Blend: Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Kainat Soomro

Inventor of Doritos dies, to be buried with his brainchild. Now that’s an exit.

• It must make you think about your culture when refusing to slaughter your daughter ^[pictured] for being raped gets everyone else pissed at you.
  (via @rdfrs)

• The Right’s crusade against Planned Parenthood continues apace.
  (via Right Wing Watch)

• English judge rules that permanently comatose woman shouldn’t be allowed to die, despite family’s wishes, because “her life retains ‘positive elements’”. Like an 8-year-long nap, I guess.
  (via @BreakingNews)

• Religious pests crow over terminal baby’s long-artificially delayed death. A sickening show of what’s wrong with “pro-life” mentality.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Kainat Soomro • Pakistan • gang-rape • honor killings • Human Rights Commission of Pakistan • Cliff Stearns • Planned Parenthood • anti-abortionists • Scott Baker • Baby Joseph • Joseph Maraachli • Moe Maraachli • Sana Nader • Christians

Bachmann: Terri Schiavo was “healthy”; audience disagrees

Here’s an oldie but a goodie (moreso for those, like I, who hadn’t seen it yet): Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) at a committee hearing circa 2006 wherein she declares that Terri Schiavo should be kept alive because she was “healthy” and that despite her “brain damage”, “she was not terminally ill” … when Schiavo was in a permanent vegetative state due to the fact that her brain had turned to mush.

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

[−]

BACHMANN: I would’ve voted in favor of protecting the life of Terri Schiavo. She was a woman who was healthy and she had brain damage – [audience laughs] – there was no question, but from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.

I love that audience’s reaction. And this YouTube comment: “Bachmann been braindead for years and looks surprisingly healthy, so why not Schiavo?” (Touché?)

Of course, it’s clear that Bachmann was referring to the state of Schiavo’s external, non-liquified-brain body, which was indeed perfectly “healthy” – in the sense that it could be sustained indefinitely … as long as it remained attached to life support. After all, to Bachmann (and other religious-rightists), all that matters is that the person be alive in the strictest sense, any semblance of well-being or quality of life be damned. Doesn’t matter if they’re mentally impaired, or long-suffering, or even nothing but a shell at that point; if their heart’s beating, keep ’em tied to life at all costs. I find that to be a far scarier thought than mere death itself could ever be.

That is why these people are so dangerous. They are the 21^st Century’s boogeyman, only this time, they’re not hiding under the bed; they’re vying for presidency.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Tags: Michele Bachmann • Terri Schiavo

Daily Blend: Monday, July 11, 2011

Dudley Clendinen

• Radley Balko explains the obvious: Why “Caylee’s Law” is a bad idea.

• Touching right-to-die essay from former New York Times correspondent and ALS sufferer Dudley Clendinen [pictured].
  (via The Agitator)

• Six lies about the human body you learned in kindergarten (and probably still believe).

• Information is Beautiful: The Sunscreen Smokescreen.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Radley Balko • Casey Anthony • Caylee Anthony • Caylee's Law • Dudley Clendinen • ALS • suicide • human body • sunscreen

Daily Blend: Wednesday, June 15, 2011

• Detailed and critical look at sex offender laws [pictured] and “the triumph of outrage over reason”.
  (via The Agitator)

• How can one expect cops hold other law enforcers accountable when they keep being ostracized whenever they do?
  (via The Agitator)

• Americans fear British-style healthcare because of “socialism!!!11!”. Brits fear American-style healthcare because it’s a privatization nightmare.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• “Hoods in the hizzouse”: More blatant race-baiting from Fox News (specifically, Fox Business Channel).

• Alzheimer’s-suffering Terry Pratchet considering signing his own assisted suicide forms.
  (via @danaseverance)

• Another moving tale of a life of wretchedness leading to beauty.

• Photos of photos where they were photographed.
  (via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Elliot Zinstein • Jennifer Troiano • NYPD • National Health Service • NHS • racism • Fox News • Fox Business • Eric Bolling • Barack Obama • White House • Ali Bongo • Terry Pratchett • assisted suicide • Dignitas Clinic • Korea's Got Talent • Sung-bong Choi • Dear Photograph

Oregon House passes bill to prevent sale of suicide kits

I suppose it was only bound to happen. Last month, I wrote about the interesting dilemma posed by an elderly Washington woman who was producing and selling “suicide kits” online, thus making a quick and painless exit available to anyone, including those not necessarily in a rational frame of mind for making such a critical decision.

Long story short: The reason the woman selling these kits wasn’t in jail was thanks to a loophole in Washington State law. And although Sharlotte is still safe from prosecution in her home state for the time being, this will apparently no longer be true in the near future, if the State of Oregon has its way and enacts a bill that would effectively make it illegal for anyone to sell such kits online, regardless of where they reside [links removed]:

SALEM -- The Oregon House voted 52-6 Monday to establish a new felony charge for knowingly assisting a suicide that targets the sale of “suicide kits.”

Senate Bill 376 was introduced after Nick Klonoski, 29, committed suicide using a “helium hood” he bought online from Sharlotte Hydorn, 91, of California through The GLADD Group, or Good Life And Dignified Death.

While Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law requires people consult with a doctor, many ready-made kits, including the one purchased by Klonoski, do not require any kind of background check for compliance with state law.

“This is narrowly aimed at people selling kits to people, not the Oregon Death with Dignity Act,” Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, said, clarifying that the law does not apply to people who give away materials to commit suicide. “This bill is about people selling this for profit.”

The crime would be a class B felony, which would allow Oregon to bring charges against people outside of state borders and therefore include all online sales.

Some legislators were concerned that SB 376B could inadvertently be used to prosecute people who unknowingly sold an object intended to assist a suicide, but Rep. Matt Wand, R-Troutdale, said the bill’s language excluded that possibility.

“‘For the purpose of’: That’s a legal mental state that means the person knows the outcome and also intends the outcome,” Wand said. “It’s the intent that’s very important in this law.”

For the measure to become law, the Senate must approve House amendments to the bill and be signed by the governor.

I find it rather galling that a state could prosecute anyone residing in any other state for an act that violates a law proposed, enacted and enforced in that state alone. It seems to me that if they truly must make it a criminal offense to sell or possess such an item within state boundaries, they could simply forbid anyone from obtaining or selling it within their own borders, and perhaps (at the most) prohibit anyone out-of-state from making it available for sale or shipping to that particular state.

I’ve already written all about my thoughts concerning assisted suicide and the distribution of such kits online, so I’ll just end by saying that it’s at least a good sign that those behind this measure don’t seem to be targeting Oregon’s current assisted suicide law. People should have the chance to choose rationally what they want to do with their own lives, even if that means ending it. It’s absolutely none of the government’s business which choice they make.

(via @BreakingNews)

Tags: assisted suicide • Oregon • Sharlotte Hydorn • suicide kits • Nick Klonoski • Jeff Barker

Dr. Jack Kevorkian dies peacefully at 83

Dr. Jack Kevorkian with his assisted suicide machine [full size (380×205)]

One of the leaders of the assisted suicide/Right-to-Die movement, the inestimable Dr. Jack “Dr. Death Dignity” Kevorkian, has passed away:

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the audacious Michigan pathologist dubbed "Dr. Death" for his role in assisting the suicides of more than 100 terminally ill people, died early Friday at a Detroit-area hospital after a brief illness.

Kevorkian, 83, died about 2:30 a.m. at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan, close friend and prominent attorney Mayer Morganroth said.

Morganroth said it appears Kevorkian — who had been hospitalized since last month with pneumonia and kidney problems — suffered a pulmonary thrombosis when a blood clot from his leg broke free and lodged in his heart, according to the Detroit Free Press.

After helping so many suffering and terminal people ease out of their misery, the good doctor finally finds his respite as well. May he rest in peace.

Now, let the “pro-life” sliming begin continue!

Tags: Jack Kevorkian • assisted suicide

Daily Blend: Sunday, May 08, 2011

William Melchert-Dinkel

• I’m all for assisted suicide, but this monstrous asshole [pictured] deserves far worse than just a year in prison.
  (via Uzza)

• More efforts to corrupt the teaching of Evolutionary Theory in Texas classrooms.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• South African “exorcist” “prophet” who molests women and his bodyguards arrested … for carrying unlicensed firearms.

• Delta Airlines pilot refuses to fly until two Muslim men in traditional Indian and Arabic garbs are removed from the plane.
  (via @todayspolitics)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Supplemental tags: Mohamed Zaghloul

Elderly woman sells suicide kits online, reveals interesting new angle in Right-to-Die debate [updated]

Anyone who’s been following my writings for a long time will probably know that I’m a strong advocate of people’s right to die, if it’s a choice they make deliberately and rationally. The argument is not only empathetic (there’s no reason to cling to a life of unbearable agony if you have the ability to end it on your own terms), but also logical; if people have a right to live, then it naturally follows that they have the right to end their lives as well (though the devil is certainly in the details).

However, there’s an interesting case in the news that brings up a number of questions pertaining to the moral/ethical limits of providing assisted suicide services, especially in a manner where just anyone could potentially take advantage of them. An elderly woman in La Mesa, California, is currently the center of a media storm over her selling “suicide kits” online, one of which has already been used by at least one person. KGTV San Diego reports:

LA MESA, Calif. -- A 91-year-old East County grandmother is getting national attention for making suicide kits. The woman, who we're calling 'Charlotte,' started making the kits after watching her husband die a slow, painful death from colon cancer.

"I'm doing what I can to improve the world," she told 10News. "There's a lot of heartache and difficulty here."

Charlotte makes the kits -- which cost buyers $60 -- by taking large plastic bags and sewing soft elastic bands around the opening. There is a slot in the bag for a plastic tube carrying helium gas to be inserted. Helium -- when inhaled in its pure form -- is deadly. Kit users are responsible for securing their own helium gas.

The only reason “Charlotte” isn’t telling her story from behind bars is because of a loophole in California law. So, naturally, there’s a motion afoot to plug it:

[…] an Oregon lawmaker has put forward a bill to make selling the kits a felony in the state.

[…]

A representative for local Rep. Duncan Hunter told 10News: "It's the responsibility of the state to limit the sale of certain items for the purpose of assisted suicides … The reality is that most states, including California, have not enacted the relevant laws to deal with this problem …"

Why does Vox Day love bullshitting about “immoral atheists”?

Pictured: Murderin’ atheist!

In which our favorite pseudo-intellectual Christianist crank can’t resist indulging in some more anti-atheistic fear-mongering:

As I pointed out in TIA, it is not difficult to understand why extraordinarily ambitious atheists in positions of great political power show such a strong predilection for mass slaughter. They are usually obsessed with forcibly modifying society on a large scale and it is impossible to do that without "breaking a few eggs". Contra Sam Harris, their bloody acts are perfectly rational; we can and should reject their justifications but we cannot fault their logic. But how does one explain the likes of largely apolitical atheists like Terry Pratchett, whose early-onset Alzheimer's has led him to produce a work of murder propaganda?

Oh, my. “[M]ass slaughter”? “[F]orcibly modifying society on a large scale”? “[M]urder propaganda”? What telling evil has Vox uncovered, here? Evidence of a massive atheistic genocide cover-up? New research indicating the presence of a long-supposed Evil Gene found only within atheists in that God-shaped hole in their shriveled black hearts? What tale of inhumane depravity could possibly spawn such rhetoric?

Well, if one happens to check out the excerpt he quotes from the linked article, the answer to such a query is … “nothing much”:

Viewers of the BBC2 show will see the writer, whose Discworld series of books have sold millions of copies worldwide, at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland with the 71 year–old motor neurone disease sufferer, named only as Peter.

Sir Terry, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2008, also reveals that he is "a believer in assisted death".

In 2008, a documentary on Sky Television called Right To Die? showed 59–yearold Craig Ewert ending his life. He also suffered from motor neurone disease.

Dr Peter Saunders, director of the charity Care Not Killing, criticised the BBC's decision to broadcast the programme, saying it was acting "like a cheerleader for legalising assisted suicide".

Daily Blend: Monday, December 20, 2010

Susan Caldwell [source]

• Terminally ill Georgia woman [pictured] sues to overturn the state’s anti-assisted suicide law. We have a right to live, and we also have a right to choose our own death.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• 5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam, via Cracked.com.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• So Ken Ham’s Kentuckian Ark theme park will attract either 900, 14,000 or 200,000,000 jobs. Maybe their ‘0’ key just keeps sticking.

• Roger Ebert says these animations almost rival anything Pixar does. I agree. A delightful holiday present.

• Med school is stressful and awkward enough as it is. So performing an autopsy on their own professor may not help the mood much.
  (via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Saturday, December 04, 2010

USAF’s 1,760-PS3 supercomputer

I know it’s hard not to blame websites and services like Paypal or Amazon.com for refusing to help WikiLeaks in their time of need and protection. But the truth is that they are victims as well of the same brutal bullying that’s causing so much grief for WikiLeaks. Rather than blame them for caving in to great and dangerous pressures from an undefeatable opponent, you should rather aim your outrage and rebellion at the true culprit: the censorial tyrants of the US Government.

• Lifelong quadriplegic man not allowed to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment because he is “depressed”. Another example showing how laws need to be based circumstantially, not absolutely.

• I tried counting the number of falsehoods in this (mercifully) brief exchange with Gretchen Carlson and Bill O’Reilly on the subject of atheist Christmas billboards, but my brain went on strike claiming cruel and unusual punishment.

• US Air Force now using nearly two thousand PS3s as a supercomputer [pictured]. No, seriously. And I don’t even have one. *sad face*
  (via The Daily Grail)

• *Gigglesnort* Oh, so true …
  (via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Saturday, October 09, 2010

Michael Caine

• Civil and military scientists finally find possible answer to the massive honeybee die-off in recent years.
  (via The Daily Grail)

• ATHEISTS WILL KILL YOU ALL AND EAT YOUR BABIES!!!11!
  (via @PaulFidalgo)

• State or federal, it makes no difference: Wherever you look, too many prosecutors are incompetent and dishonest. And the courts want to give them absolute immunity?

• Unexpected good news: Bank of America indefinitely halts all foreclosures across the US, forcing others to do the same, giving clients a few weeks of breathing room.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Dr. Michael Mann, climatologist constantly targeted by anti-science witch hunts from Virginia’s crank Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, speaks out in the Washington Post: “[T]hey want to continue a 20-year assault on climate research, questioning basic science and promoting doubt where there is none.”
  (via @BadAstronomer)

• Muslim father whines that his daughter swims with both boys and girls at school. Token stupid quote: “Anyone's religious beliefs should be respected.” No, they bloody well should not. If your beliefs are stupid, irrational and detrimental, such as in this case, then they must and will be derided.
  (via @religionnews)

• American People Hire High-Powered Lobbyist To Push Interests In Congress. The Onion can be cruelly right sometimes.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Fox News, where all the relevant, hard-hitting questions are … replaced by this shit. (10/18 questions devoted to bashing Obama.)
  (via @todayspolitics)