Diane Rehm: the voice for death with dignity

MoonHowler

rehm

Washingtonpost.com:

Diane Rehm and her husband John had a pact: When the time came, they would help each other die.

John’s time came last year. He could not use his hands. He could not feed himself or bathe himself or even use the toilet. Parkinson’s had ravaged his body and exhausted his desire to live.

“I am ready to die,” he told his Maryland doctor. “Will you help me?”

The doctor said no, that assisting suicide is illegal in Maryland. Diane remembers him specifically warning her, because she is so well known as an NPR talk show host, not to help. No medication. No pillow over his head. John had only one option, the doctor said: Stop eating, stop drinking.

So that’s what he did. Ten days later, he died.

For Rehm, the inability of the dying to get legal medical help to end their lives has been a recurring topic on her show. But her husband’s slow death was a devastating episode that helped compel her to enter the contentious right-to-die debate. “I feel the way that John had to die was just totally inexcusable,” Rehm said in a long interview in her office. “It was not right.”

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Federal judge orders local judges to issue marriage licenses

MoonHowler

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newyorktimes.com:

MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge here ruled on Thursday that the local probate judge cannot refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, potentially adding some clarity to a judicial quarrel that has roiled Alabama for most of a week.

The order by Judge Callie V. S. Granade of Federal District Court came after a brief hearing and prompted cheers and crying in the halls of the probate court here, where several couples obtained licenses and were married before the license office closed.

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About immigration: a word to the wise

MoonHowler

child
Today I read some unpleasantness on a local blog about illegal immigration. The blogmeister(s) made the mistake of quoting F.A.I.R. For the uninitiated (read Baptism by Fire), F.A.I.R. is the Federation for American Immigration Reform. F.A.I.R.’s objectives are to secure the border (southern), to stop illegal immigration and by their own admission, limited the number of legal immigrants into the country.

Here’s the reality of the situation. Supervisor Candland, whether rightly or wrongly, is associated in many people’s minds with the blog where I read the diatribe about unaccompanied minors and the remarks and report by F.A.I.R. He does not want to be associated with F.A.I.R. nor does he want to appear to be anti-immigration.

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Jessie Matthew charged with first degree murder in Hannah Graham death

MoonHowler


Washingtonpost.com:

CHARLOTTESVILLE — A man from the Charlottesville area has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, officials in Albemarle County announced Tuesday.

Jesse L. Matthew Jr., 33, was previously charged with Graham’s abduction after authorities said he was the last person seen with the 18-year-old from Fairfax County before she disappeared from Charlottesville in September. Her body was found in a wooded area about 10 miles from campus weeks later.

Matthew also has been charged with abduction with intent to defile, indicating that police believe he intended to sexually assault Graham. Matthew faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.

Lunsford said she chose not to seek a capital murder charge, which carries a potential death sentence. Virginia law allows it in homicide cases that allegedly involve an abduction or sexual assault. Lunsford would not discuss her reasoning but said the decision came after consulting with Graham’s family and weighing the impact on the community.

“The charges that the jury will hear are the charges that the prosecutor feels comfortable to bring,” Lunsford said.

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The”cringeable” interview

MoonHowler

I don’t usually agree with Megyn Kelly but that interview was dreadful. It was cringeable. I felt sorry for Eric Holder. I was embarrassed for both of them. Melissa Harris-Perry usually does better than that.

What am I missing here? It didn’t even make sense. Why would anyone call Eric Holder a duck? Asking him to quack was just mortifying. She needs to find another line of work.

More sleep…more sleep…more sleep for those in high school

MoonHowler

From Channel 4 News:

Washingtonpost.com:

Students clad in pajamas and draped in sleeping bags demonstrated outside school board headquarters in Montgomery County on Monday, urging support for later high school start times that would allow them to get more rest.

The “sleep-in” — replete with bathrobes, teddy bears and fuzzy slippers — came on the eve of a school board vote, expected Tuesday, on whether to shift school schedules at Montgomery’s 25 high schools, where classes now begin at 7:25 a.m.
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Judicial showdown: Alabama misbehavior….again

MoonHowler

Politico.com:

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s defiance of a federal court order on gay marriage is just the latest in a long line of bitter states’ rights fights on issues from school integration to the Confederate battle flag – and the latest potentially embarrassing political sideshow for the 2016 field of GOP presidential hopefuls.

In the end, some veteran Republican strategists suggest, Moore’s order barring county probate judges from issuing gay marriage licenses may serve mainly to harden the entrenched positions of supporters and opponents of a legal issue on which public opinion has been shifting with lightning speed, and which the Supreme Court seems likely to resolve by this summer.

Moore’s decision, however, increases the chances that Republican presidential candidates will be forced to discuss the issue — in the racially freighted framework of states’ rights, no less — before extremely conservative voters in the heat of a primary campaign.

If I were a GOP candidate, I would not want to discuss Judge Roy Moore under any circumstances.  He is political gasoline.

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Measles vaccinations: mandatory or not?

MoonHowler

The question of the day is, should measles vaccinations be mandatory or not? I can’t imagine anyone not getting their kid vaccinated. How many readers have actually had red measles? I have. It was a horrible disease and I will never forget having it. I especially remember the hallucinations I had during it. I was sick for a good 2 weeks and I remember having horrible dreams. I cannot specifically remember what those dreams were (Give me a break, I was only six!) but I remember having the dreams that also spilled over into day time dreams.

Some people weren’t as lucky as I was. Some kids who got measles also had complications like encephalitis, blindness and I guess a few died. Mumps was pretty miserable also. I had rubella also supposedly 3 times which I don’t think is possible. There were probably lots of diseases back in those days that mimicked German measles.

I vote for mandatory. No one wants their kid to have measles. It is one nasty disease. In fact, I can’t even discuss it with those who don’t want to vaccinate. Its like death penalty discussions.  I just don’t do them.

School Board needs to hold BOCS’ feet to the fire

MoonHowler

feet

Bristowbeat.com:

The Prince William County School Board gave the Superintendent guidance on preparing a budget that would explore cuts to discretionary programs, Wednesday, but would fund teacher salary increases and class size reductions across one grade level in the district.

In discussion, the proposal to eliminate full-day kindergarten proved to be unpopular amongst board members. School Board members were also unhappy about eliminating specialty programs, but nonetheless agreed to review them along with other discretionary programs. 

Back in December, the Board of County Supervisor’s provided its own budget guidance to the County Executive. They asked her to create the county’s Fiscal Year 16 [FY16] budget based on a tax increase of 1.3 percent, rather than the 4 percent tax increase prescribed by the board’s five-year plan.

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Critics outraged by Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

President Obama has never been one to go easy on America.

As a new president, he dismissed the idea of American exceptionalism, noting that Greeks think their country is special, too. He labeled the Bush-era interrogation practices, euphemistically called “harsh” for years, as torture. America, he has suggested, has much to answer given its history in Latin America and the Middle East.

His latest challenge came Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast. At a time of global anxiety over Islamist terrorism, Obama noted pointedly that his fellow Christians, who make up a vast majority of Americans, should perhaps not be the ones who cast the first stone.
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Citizens of Charlottesville and beyond clash over Lee / Jackson Day

MoonHowler

confederate

Dailyprogress.com:

A debate over whether to pan Charlottesville’s annual observance of a holiday honoring Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson plunged the Charlottesville City Council Chambers into chaos at times Monday.

On Feb. 17, the council is scheduled to decide whether Charlottesville will continue to mark the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day — the third Monday of January — as a local government holiday.

“There is a sentiment in our community that the holiday is outdated and offensive to many, and should be retired here in the City,” City Manager Maurice Jones wrote in a Jan. 28 email to city employees.

Charlottesville does not give employees a paid day off on Veterans Day, he noted, at the meeting.

The debate Monday drew speakers from Petersburg and Richmond and letter writers from Oregon, Maryland and Ohio, some of whom signed their notes “In Honor of Old Virginia” or “Respectfully … a daughter of the South.”

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Moonhowlings: Consciously uncoupling

MoonHowler

Effective today, Elena will no longer be associated with this blog.  Yes, we are still friends, good friends in fact.   We are good enough friends that this discussion was possible and that we can dissolve our blog work without it harming our friendship.

Our paths have taken us in different directions.  Elena is working on land use issues and battling power lines.  She is developing relationships with others that would be hurt by her association with this blog.

Let’s just be brutally honest.  I have been holding back and not going after a few folks that I feel need a little blog discussion.  I haven’t done it out of respect for Elena’s work with many different politicians in recent months.  We both decided that it was far easier to “consciously uncouple” our blog-ship than for her to get the blame for my actions or for me to hold back because of her.

There are no secrets and there is no behind-the-scenes story.  Elena is just more comfortable divorcing herself from the blog.  Politics already makes strange bedfellows.  [in this case REAL strange]  Having a blog just complicates the issues.

 

 

 

Cheap-ass BOCS antics threaten all-day kindergarten

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Prince William County’s schools enrollment boom has outpaced the growth of the district’s budget for years, a quandary exacerbated by the recession. Class sizes have ballooned. Bus service has been cut. Per-pupil spending has flattened.

Faced with the prospect of the county’s enacting a smaller than planned increase in the property tax rate, the school board has again begun weighing drastic cuts, this time to the district’s treasured universal full-day kindergarten program, which Superintendent Steven L. Walts once touted as his “greatest accomplishment.” After years of cutbacks, board members said there are few places left to look to save money.

“It’s more of an economic calculation than an educational calculation,” said school board Chairman Milton C. Johns (At Large), who has championed the expansion of the program. “We’re out of options.”

So this is what it comes down to?  The BOCS needs to stop trying to “out-Republican” each other and do the right and responsible thing.  Cutting new funding back to a $12 million increase is not the right and responsible thing to do when PWC gets approximately 2000 new students per year.

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