Killing Them Softly: Assisted Suicide

Is Assisted Suicide the Most Humane Way to End Unwanted Life?

Even though suicide is against the law in most of the United States, there are a few places – Oregon, Vermont and Washington – where that law has been turned on its head, providing for physician-assisted suicide (AS) for those victims of terminal and highly painful diseases.

One state, Montana, currently allows AS via a court ruling – what some would consider a legal precedent known as the Baxter decision. The physician responsible for this precedent-setting decision is Dr. Eric Kress, a family practitioner for 26 years. The incident itself, which ended the life of a terminally ill but mentally alert adult via prescription, has passed into history.

Unfair Labor Practices: Starbucks Lawsuit

             

Starbucks, one of the world’s most successful and largest coffee chains, is a customer favorite from the West to East Coast.  A corporation that started out in Seattle as a single retail store in 1971 expanded by great leaps and bounds in 40 plus years looks like a true success story for many business minded individuals.  The multi-million dollar corporation, with over 17,000 stores located internationally, offers numerous work opportunities for budding baristas and coffee aficionados, alike.  Many might think that Starbucks, keeping their small beginnings in mind, may make their employees their number one priority.  However, many Starbucks employees feel the brunt of a money hungry corporation rather than the “employee comes first” approach.  Employees, eager to fight for the respect they deserve are filing lawsuits against Starbucks to receive the workers’ compensation they are owed and rightly deserve; without baristas, Starbucks would not be what they are today.

Weird and Strange Laws

          


Did you know that in Illinois it is illegal to have sex with a corpse? Or that in Michigan it is illegal to sell a duckling that has been dyed? Or that in New Mexico idiots are not allowed to vote, while in South Carolina a man can go to jail for a year for breaking a promise to marry a woman? There are hundreds of state laws that many might find to be weird, causing some to wonder about the story behind their passage. Every law was passed to solve a societal concern. In some cases that concern is shared by a large part of the population, while in other cases the law addresses an issue known to only a few. In still other cases the law was passed to address a concern once shared by many, but now shared by few.

Temperature In Relation To Coal Mining Accidents

Coal Mining History

Coal mining used to be a dirty, dangerous, soul-destroying job. It has since morphed into a dirty and dangerous but rather well-paid job whose toll on the environment has increased even as its toll on the health and well-being of miners has decreased.  

The American coal-mining industry began in the latter half of the 18th century, in Pennsylvania, which was even as late as 1995 the fourth largest coal-producing state in the United States. Miners were typically immigrants, though commonly from countries which also had mining operations, like Wales or Germany. Men who did not know how the mines worked were not welcome because their lack of experience usually ended up killing others in addition to themselves. The only certainty in a coal miner’s life was the ubiquitous presence of coal dust and “gob”; that is, high-potency methane gas. Both, though mitigated by various modern ventilation and filtering methods, remain a constant.

U.S. Lacks Alternative Power Compared to UK

As the climate continues to warm, and normally cool or even cold places like Alaska break records during what is only the first month of summer, U.S. policy makers turn – belatedly – to the idea of alternative power.

It’s far too late to prevent some of the devastating effects of global warming, also known as climate change. In fact, it’s very likely that the planet will not only reach the unimaginable 2-degree increase in temperature predicted by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), but exceed it. This, at least, is the message from James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a highly reputable (if singularly disturbing) scientist in his own right.

The Mind of a Serial Killer: Dexter

Showtime’s “Dexter”, one of the network’s most popular long running shows, has Dexter Morgan fans starting to mourn the show as its rumored “final” season 8 aired in late June.  Hundreds of thousands of viewers tune in each week to watch the self-proclaimed monster, serial killer Dexter Morgan, carefully select his victims.  Viewers are drawn to Dexter because, while he is a serial killer, he is ridding the world of bad people.  Dexter’s killings play into morality; the good or the bad of another human being.  His victims are never innocent, but instead are guilty of murder, emotional, physical and/or sexual assault and other crimes involving innocent people.  Dexter’s killings attempt to create a balance in an unjust society, but taking a look at Dexter, is he really any better than his deserving victims?

5 Deadliest Workplace Disasters

No. 1, the Most Recent

In the wake of the 2013 clothing factory collapse in Bangladesh, at Rana Plaza, people in the developed world are beginning to turn their eyes and minds to the real cost of the clothing they buy.

And not a moment too soon. The more than 1,100 who died on April 24, and the thousands more who survived, are a haunting lesson in Third World economics. It was only when the larger world outside Bangladesh learned that garment workers were forced back into the building in spite of warnings surrounding the huge crack that had developed, that the incident developed moral overtones.