California legislature approves physician assisted suicide

MoonHowler

New York Times:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In a landmark victory for supporters of assisted suicide, the California State Legislature on Friday gave its final approval to a bill that would allow doctors to help terminally ill people end their own lives.

Four states — Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont — already allow physicians to prescribe life-ending medication to some patients. The California bill, which passed Friday in the State Senate by a vote of 23 to 14, will now go to Gov. Jerry Brown, who will roughly triple access to doctor-assisted suicide across the country if he signs it. Mr. Brown has given little indication of his intentions.

Leaders of the “death with dignity” movement said they hoped the passage of the California law could be a turning point.

As human beings, we should have control over our own deaths with dignity if we are faced with a terminal illness.  Good for California.  There are now 4 civilized states in the Union.  Only 46 more to go.

Of course there have to be safe-guards.  However, why should the state have the final jurisdiction over our very lives.  Anyone who has ever been with a loved one with a terminal illness knows exactly what I am talking about.

I stand with Harry Wiggins

MoonHowler

I don’t always agree with the Democrats.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.  This is particularly true of the local Democrats.  This time I do agree with the Democrats and I stand with Harry Wiggins and the others who have left the Committee  because of the vitriolic language towards gays and lesbians  demonstrated by the chairman of Committee of 100.

Harry Wiggins, chairman of the Prince William County Democratic Committee, explained his position and the position of the 27 Democratic candidates in today’s Potomac Local:

Why Democrats will not participate in Prince William Committee of 100 candidate forums

As many know, the Prince William Democratic candidates for this November’s General Election are not participating in any forum, debate, etc, hosted by, sponsored by, or co-hosted by the Prince William Committee of 100.

This was a unanimous decision by all 27 Democrats running for office in Prince William. The reason?

Shortly after being elected President of the Committee of 100, James Young posted a venomous attack on homosexuals. Mr. Young is, of course, entitled to his political views, and he need not forfeit them simply because he is president of the Committee of 100.

He is free to publicly oppose gay marriage, adoption of children by gay couples, and a host of other policies targeting homosexuals. His rant, however, was not a political policy statement, but a hateful and vitriolic assault on homosexuals as people, employing the type of language that has been used in the past to both provoke and rationalize violence against them.

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Never Forget: 9-11-2001

MoonHowler

never forget

There doesn’t seem to be much on TV this year about 9-11.  I suppose 14 years does make a difference.  However, I want to see live footage.  I want to feel the rage and the resolve I felt that day.  I fear that if I don’t use this day, 9-11-15 and every 9-11 moving forward, I will grow complacent and sloppy.

I don’t want to get over it.  I need my refresher course of outrage dished out yearly.  I will never forget watching TV that night, after being sequestered away from TV that entire day, and thinking out loud, of all the gall!  the nerve! the effrontery!   Then a slow anger came over me that I don’t want to dissipate over the years.

9-11-2001 changed how Americans do business forever.  Our travel will never be the same.  Just getting a driver’s license is different.  Our entire way of proving who we are will never go back to the way we did things on 9-10-2001.  We are a nation now on our guard against terrorism in everything we do.  I so resent that disturbance.

The day before yesterday our house mate came in and told me he saw a woman who was wearing a full burqa strolling her baby down the street.  I didn’t see her but I was outraged over his sighting.  I don’t like the lack of security–I want to know who is walking up and down my street.  I don’t like people hiding their faces.  I see no difference in wearing a burqa and wearing a stocking mask.  If I saw someone walking down the street in a stocking mask, I would call the police.  Why should my risk assessment be different in this case?

Please share your feelings.  Mine aren’t particularly rational but they don’t have to be.  9-11 wasn’t a rational day and no, those of us alive on 9-11-2001 will never forget!