"On Tuesday, Feb. 15, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan convened hundreds of teachers'-union leaders and school-district leaders in Denver to discuss ways management and labor could work together better. Kumbaya!
Two days later, all hell broke loose in Madison, Wis. The flash point was Republican Governor Scott Walker's plan to address the state's budget gap by making public employees contribute more to health care coverage, coupled with a proposal to eliminate collective bargaining for most public employees — including teachers. Democratic state legislators went into hiding to thwart a vote on the measure, and schools closed as thousands of teachers left their classrooms to descend on the state capital. "
--Andrew J. Rotherham Friday, Feb. 18, 2011; TIME Magazine
When folks reflect back in time to their earliest mentors; TEACHERS fill that role for most of us.
Today, more than ever, public school teachers are EXPECTED to fill the void left by broken and often inattentive families. Public schools are not only a place for academic development; they also serve to provide students with the foundation for basic lessons in life values.
Young students are behavioral sponges......soaking up the lessons taught by their home environment, by their peers and by their classroom teachers.
When the protesting teachers parade signs of angry hatred depicting their opponent, Governor Walker, as the personification of evil with Hitleresque images and vitriolic slurs; this behavior will validate a gang banger mentality that is already too pervasive in American school yards..........the negative impact of that lesson on their students will be far greater than a few days of missed classes.
So as these teachers march in selfish protest under the cover of overtly fraudulent doctor's notes to excuse the "truant" behavior; they have effectively shirked not only their responsibility to TEACH their students academic basics but also to appropriately lead by example......an even more basic lesson lost---CHARACTER.
It is noble to fight for what you believe in.............provided your conduct is honorable.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
"THE 'LADY' DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH, METHINKS": LYKOS REVEALED
Brian Rogers took a big risk this morning by putting journalistic integrity on the front page of today's Houston Chronicle........my hat is off to you, sir.
Well as it turns out Lykos was an inspiration for William Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; thus Rogers' epiphany, "when someone insists so passionately about something not being true people suspect the opposite of what one is saying."
Rogers aptly pointed out that, "Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos won office in 2008 saying conviction rates should not be about 'the counting of scalps'."
'Judges aren't referees and justice is not a game,' she said on the campaign trail."
Pat Lykos could not run for District Attorney on personal merit or ability so her campaign focused on tearing down the reputation of her highly qualified opponent, Kelly Siegler. Lykos marginalized Rock Star prosecutors generally by implying it was all a game for them---the spoils went to the winners and justice was lost in the exchange. Political Pat Lykos knew that a campaign based on merit would not have worked in her favor......so she put on her game face--truth be damned and "Dialing for Dollars" was on!
Shall we judge Lykos simply on what she says or on what she has actually done?
Lykos has run the Harris County District Attorney's office into the ground. Trial statistics are way down, morale is at an all time low, confidence is scarce and there has never been a faster attrition rate in memory.
The fact that a mid level prosecutor felt compelled to send out an email pleading with fellow prosecutors to PLEASE try some cases begs the question as to why the Hell such a desperate plea seemed necessary; never mind how inappropriate it was on every level?
Harris County citizens should be asking:
1. Why do Harris County ADAs have to be bribed to go to trial....are they afraid, lazy, incompetent etc.?
2. When a Harris County ADA decides whether or not to go to trial:
a.) how can the complexity or level of difficulty ever over-ride one's duty to seek justice?
b.) how can doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do NOT be a sufficient basis?
c.) how can political favor ever be more important than due process and equal protection?
3. I wonder what Lykos is telling her prosecutors behind closed doors as to the consequences for a trial loss.....specially a high profile case that would reflect on her!
Game show host Pat Lykos has shown her true colors: winning at ALL costs, not justice, really is what Lykos covets most............THAT, ironically, is precisely why she never really understood or appreciated how good Kelly Siegler really is.
Siegler has SHOWN that JUSTICE is her JOB and it was NEVER a game........those are her true colors.
The "Justice Game" is officially for sale at the Harris County District Attorney's Office........I urge all readers to boycott it.
Well as it turns out Lykos was an inspiration for William Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; thus Rogers' epiphany, "when someone insists so passionately about something not being true people suspect the opposite of what one is saying."
Rogers aptly pointed out that, "Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos won office in 2008 saying conviction rates should not be about 'the counting of scalps'."
'Judges aren't referees and justice is not a game,' she said on the campaign trail."
Pat Lykos could not run for District Attorney on personal merit or ability so her campaign focused on tearing down the reputation of her highly qualified opponent, Kelly Siegler. Lykos marginalized Rock Star prosecutors generally by implying it was all a game for them---the spoils went to the winners and justice was lost in the exchange. Political Pat Lykos knew that a campaign based on merit would not have worked in her favor......so she put on her game face--truth be damned and "Dialing for Dollars" was on!
Shall we judge Lykos simply on what she says or on what she has actually done?
Lykos has run the Harris County District Attorney's office into the ground. Trial statistics are way down, morale is at an all time low, confidence is scarce and there has never been a faster attrition rate in memory.
The fact that a mid level prosecutor felt compelled to send out an email pleading with fellow prosecutors to PLEASE try some cases begs the question as to why the Hell such a desperate plea seemed necessary; never mind how inappropriate it was on every level?
Harris County citizens should be asking:
1. Why do Harris County ADAs have to be bribed to go to trial....are they afraid, lazy, incompetent etc.?
2. When a Harris County ADA decides whether or not to go to trial:
a.) how can the complexity or level of difficulty ever over-ride one's duty to seek justice?
b.) how can doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do NOT be a sufficient basis?
c.) how can political favor ever be more important than due process and equal protection?
3. I wonder what Lykos is telling her prosecutors behind closed doors as to the consequences for a trial loss.....specially a high profile case that would reflect on her!
Game show host Pat Lykos has shown her true colors: winning at ALL costs, not justice, really is what Lykos covets most............THAT, ironically, is precisely why she never really understood or appreciated how good Kelly Siegler really is.
Siegler has SHOWN that JUSTICE is her JOB and it was NEVER a game........those are her true colors.
The "Justice Game" is officially for sale at the Harris County District Attorney's Office........I urge all readers to boycott it.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
WHEN IT COMES TO KILLING MERCY CUTS BOTH WAYS......
The Texas lethal injection protocol utilizes three (3) drugs:
1. Sodium thiopental (Sodium Pentothal) is used to induce unconsciousness;
2. Pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) to cause muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest; and
3. Potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Well now there is a shortage of Sodium Pentothal in Texas.
The anti-death penalty folks are in full celebratory mode............a moratorium on the death penalty by default!
The logic parallels Obama's moratorium on off-shore drilling.
Opponents of lethal injection believe that it is not actually painless as practiced in the United States because the thiopental component is an ultra-short acting barbiturate that "may" wear off (anesthesia awareness) and lead to consciousness and an uncomfortable death wherein the inmate is unable to express his discomfort because he has been rendered paralyzed by the paralytic agent, Pavulon.
I wonder how many inmates were interviewed to reach that conclusion?
The anti-death penalty folks argue that:
1. sodium thiopental is typically used as an induction agent and not used in the maintenance phase of surgery because of its short acting nature;
2. pancuronium bromide dilutes the thiopental and (since the inmate is paralyzed) also prevents the inmate from expressing pain;
3. inmates are administered an insufficient level of thiopental owing to the rapid redistribution of the drug out of the brain to other parts of the body.
4. the method of administration is flawed since the personnel administering the lethal injection lack expertise in anesthesia and increase the risk of failing to induce unconsciousness;
5. the dose of sodium thiopental must be customized to each individual patient instead of being restricted to a set protocol; and
6. the remote administration results in an increased risk that insufficient amounts of the lethal injection drugs enter the bloodstream.
7. and if those reasons are not enough, the Hippocratic Oath precludes Doctors from administering a lethal injection.
The hypothesized conclusion implies that the effect of dilution or improper administration of thiopental causes the inmate to die an agonizing death through suffocation due to the paralytic effects of pancuronium bromide and the intense burning sensation caused by potassium chloride..........that the procedure employed is designed to create the appearance of serenity and a painless death, rather than actually providing it.
The Hippocratic Oath was first recited more than 400 years before the birth of Christ. It states, inter alia, “A Doctor will give no deadly drug to any, though it be asked of him, nor will he counsel such, and especially he will not aid a woman to procure abortion”.
Unfortunately, we live in an age when pledges of duty and fidelity of the kind found in the Oath are fast becoming passé...
The text of the Hippocratic Oath has been modified many times through the ages. Contemporary versions, routinely adopted in medical-school graduation exercises and similar context do not contain the prohibitions against surgery, abortion, or accepting fees for teaching medicine, and also omit the prohibition against physician-assisted suicide. In short, neither the Hippocratic Oath nor classical tradition provides a compelling ethical or professional prohibition of physician-assisted death.
Jay Chapman, the creator of lethal injection, said, "It never occurred to me when we set this up that we’d have complete idiots administering the drugs."
Well Mr. Chapman I submit that we have complete idiots complicating a simple issue.
The Walls Unit in Huntsville Texas houses the death chamber......it is NOT a surgical suite in The Texas Medical Center.......if it were, routine surgical procedures would, no doubt, be held Unconstitutional under the, "cruel and unusual punishment" language of the Eighth Amendment.
Common Sense alternatives Huntsville can substitute for the Sodium Pentothal Trifecta:
1. employ a competent anesthetist to use the same general anesthesia protocol prescribed for major surgical procedures.......and there won't be the complication of post-op pain management;
2. use the same pharmacological agents Obama's death panels promote for the unwanted elderly;
3. re-institute the gallows---since snapping the little necks of unborn children in their mother's womb and suctioning their brains out doesn't constitute, "cruel and unusual punishment"; we shouldn't have a conflict.
4. strap the inmate in a jihadist jacket and call the C-4 wired cell phone............the list is endless.
Our mortality demands that all of us will die one day; but few as painlessly as the inmate whose soul leaves earth by way of the Huntsville Death Chamber.
The murdered victims whose breath was stolen and the pure innocence of those dismembered before their first breath was ever taken are the ones who suffer a "Cruel and Unusual Punishment" in their ironic end..........NOT the needled inmate.
1. Sodium thiopental (Sodium Pentothal) is used to induce unconsciousness;
2. Pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) to cause muscle paralysis and respiratory arrest; and
3. Potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Well now there is a shortage of Sodium Pentothal in Texas.
The anti-death penalty folks are in full celebratory mode............a moratorium on the death penalty by default!
The logic parallels Obama's moratorium on off-shore drilling.
Opponents of lethal injection believe that it is not actually painless as practiced in the United States because the thiopental component is an ultra-short acting barbiturate that "may" wear off (anesthesia awareness) and lead to consciousness and an uncomfortable death wherein the inmate is unable to express his discomfort because he has been rendered paralyzed by the paralytic agent, Pavulon.
I wonder how many inmates were interviewed to reach that conclusion?
The anti-death penalty folks argue that:
1. sodium thiopental is typically used as an induction agent and not used in the maintenance phase of surgery because of its short acting nature;
2. pancuronium bromide dilutes the thiopental and (since the inmate is paralyzed) also prevents the inmate from expressing pain;
3. inmates are administered an insufficient level of thiopental owing to the rapid redistribution of the drug out of the brain to other parts of the body.
4. the method of administration is flawed since the personnel administering the lethal injection lack expertise in anesthesia and increase the risk of failing to induce unconsciousness;
5. the dose of sodium thiopental must be customized to each individual patient instead of being restricted to a set protocol; and
6. the remote administration results in an increased risk that insufficient amounts of the lethal injection drugs enter the bloodstream.
7. and if those reasons are not enough, the Hippocratic Oath precludes Doctors from administering a lethal injection.
The hypothesized conclusion implies that the effect of dilution or improper administration of thiopental causes the inmate to die an agonizing death through suffocation due to the paralytic effects of pancuronium bromide and the intense burning sensation caused by potassium chloride..........that the procedure employed is designed to create the appearance of serenity and a painless death, rather than actually providing it.
The Hippocratic Oath was first recited more than 400 years before the birth of Christ. It states, inter alia, “A Doctor will give no deadly drug to any, though it be asked of him, nor will he counsel such, and especially he will not aid a woman to procure abortion”.
Unfortunately, we live in an age when pledges of duty and fidelity of the kind found in the Oath are fast becoming passé...
The text of the Hippocratic Oath has been modified many times through the ages. Contemporary versions, routinely adopted in medical-school graduation exercises and similar context do not contain the prohibitions against surgery, abortion, or accepting fees for teaching medicine, and also omit the prohibition against physician-assisted suicide. In short, neither the Hippocratic Oath nor classical tradition provides a compelling ethical or professional prohibition of physician-assisted death.
Jay Chapman, the creator of lethal injection, said, "It never occurred to me when we set this up that we’d have complete idiots administering the drugs."
Well Mr. Chapman I submit that we have complete idiots complicating a simple issue.
The Walls Unit in Huntsville Texas houses the death chamber......it is NOT a surgical suite in The Texas Medical Center.......if it were, routine surgical procedures would, no doubt, be held Unconstitutional under the, "cruel and unusual punishment" language of the Eighth Amendment.
Common Sense alternatives Huntsville can substitute for the Sodium Pentothal Trifecta:
1. employ a competent anesthetist to use the same general anesthesia protocol prescribed for major surgical procedures.......and there won't be the complication of post-op pain management;
2. use the same pharmacological agents Obama's death panels promote for the unwanted elderly;
3. re-institute the gallows---since snapping the little necks of unborn children in their mother's womb and suctioning their brains out doesn't constitute, "cruel and unusual punishment"; we shouldn't have a conflict.
4. strap the inmate in a jihadist jacket and call the C-4 wired cell phone............the list is endless.
Our mortality demands that all of us will die one day; but few as painlessly as the inmate whose soul leaves earth by way of the Huntsville Death Chamber.
The murdered victims whose breath was stolen and the pure innocence of those dismembered before their first breath was ever taken are the ones who suffer a "Cruel and Unusual Punishment" in their ironic end..........NOT the needled inmate.
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