Live from San Quentin

I've been following (not closely, but still paying attention to) the Michael Morales death sentence fiasco going on in California. Basically, the guy was sentenced to death back in 1983 for the rape and murder of a teenage girl. He's scum. No question. And he confessed, so I have no reason to believe he could possibly be innocent.

Anyway, he was going to get his lethal injection--over 20 years after the sentencing--last week. California, like the majority of the US, uses a three-drug combo to kill condemned criminals: one drug to sedate the person, one to paralyze them, and one to stop their heart. Problem is, if the dosage of the first drug isn't high enough to totally put them under and KEEP them under, the other two drugs are excruciatingly painful, and some people have pointed out that this amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Therefore, it was decided that there had to be anesthesiologsists present to step in and administer more of the sedative if necessary.

The anesthesiologists refused at the last minute to take part. They said it would be medically unethical.

Then a judge said, "Ok, well, just kill him with one massive dose of the barbituate sedative." Problem was, to do that, they needed to find a licensed medical professional to perform the injection.

They couldn't find one who would do it.

This is getting interesting. The question raised is this: is it possible to ensure that a condemned prisoner's death is painless, without using methods that must of necessity be performed by a doctor? And will doctors be ok with the idea of performing procedures specifically to end the life of condemned criminals? Will other states have this issue now that the trail's been blazed? I wonder. I wonder what will happen to the future of capital punishment if what's happening in California affects other states. I wonder how the debate among the public will go.

Most of you probably know I'm not in favor of the death penalty. I've heard all the arguments for it, and a lot of them do make a lot of sense, but not enough sense to change the way I feel. I'm stubborn on this one. But yeah, I'm interested to see how this will work out.

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Last night, my boss took us all out to Elephant and Castle for munchies and drinks. It was a sendoff for me and for our head technical guy, L--the most senior member of the company after the boss--who's leaving on the 28th to sort of temporarily retire.

It was fun while the boss was there. He paid for all the munchies and drinks until he left, so that was cool. Then he left, and the party REALLY got started. Oy. We were drinking, laughing, taking embarrassing pictures of each other...oh man. It was probably the most fun I've had with the work crowd. Good way to end my stint here.

I'm still hoping to get people together at Sunset on Friday, by the way. I know leenah and cutieyum will probably make it. Anyone else wants to show up, let me know.

So L, the other guy who's leaving, gave me a card and a gift-wrapped package this morning. The card said nice stuff about how it's been a pleasure working with me, and the present was a 512MB flash drive! He'd been surprised when I said that I didn't have one the other day. That was so sweet. I think I will get him a card (something silly) and maybe some dark chocolate (his weakness). After all, he won't be here anymore where we refill the candy dish on a regular basis!

Damn, I have the munchies something fierce today. I had a sandwich with 2 slices of nearly-fat-free ham and one egg's worth of Eggbeaters this morning...and I'm already hungry! Want food. Meh.

Hungry hungry hippo

This is WEIRD. I had a breakfast of the size and ingredients that I have on most days, and at my usual time. I had a goodly amount of munchies last night that made up my dinner. And yet...I am WICKED HUNGRY. Already. And I'd be HUNGRIER if I hadn't eaten a hard pretzel half an hour ago.

I have a lunch date with pierceheart) (yay!) at 1pm. By that time I may be ready to gnaw on my own knuckles. Or at least to get something more filling (and worse for me) than sushi. Oy. Maybe I'll have another pretzel.

A word to the wise:

My birthday and Valentine's Day are both past now, and won't come again for a while. However, if there is anyone who on a future occurance of one of those dates would really like to impress me, make me drool, and earn a lot of sexual favours from me, this site will tell you exactly how to do it.

I like the most exotic and unusual ones. All of 'em. Yes, they're expensive. That's why I said they should be for special occasions only. Also, they just go well with special occasions. :)

Thank you, witchyspyce, for making me weak in the knees with chocolate lust.