Stinky Noisy Snowmobiles

A New Hampshire couple is in the news today. This duo has spent 20 years riding noisy, smelly, obtrusive snowmobiles through beautiful landscapes, apparently earning them the bragging rights of claiming to see many moose over the years. The wife carries a handgun and a video camera as proof of the couple's bona fide outdoorsy-ness.

They recently encountered a young moose, as the news stories go, directly on the snowmobile trail. Instead of stopping and giving the wild animal the right of way, they continued to drive their loud, stinky snowmobiles down the trail directly behind the frightened animal as it ran down the trail away from them. When the animal finally stopped and approached them, the husband ran from it and the wife fired her gun into the air. (She said she didn't shoot the moose because she knew the gun would only injure and anger the animal rather than kill it).

The local news channel has a misleading headline that reads, Moose Charges NH couple Snowmobiling in Jackman, suggesting the couple are victims of the moose rather than the other way around. Now the Maine Warden Service is investigating the couple to see if they should be charged with harassing the animal. The couple posted video of them following the moose online for the world to see. Since the investigation started, the husband said that he and his wife, " ... inadvertently rode closer to the moose than they anticipated, but were not chasing it ..." 

Can't adults find something better to do with their time than ride big, noisy machines through the woods ... machines that frighten wild animals who are searching for food and trying to survive? Animals that are forced to burn their energy reserves running from noisy, intrusive humans, rather than finding food and escaping predators? Not to mention how disturbing snowmobiles are to people who choose to quietly, respectfully hike through the woods.

It is a bit amusing to see people who fuck with nature get indignant when nature fucks them back.

2004 March for Women's Lives Anniversary

Fred Phelps Is Dead

Fred Phelps, the infamous founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, is dead. 

Enough said.

Mental Health Patients In Prison

I woke this morning bitching about having to shovel snow today.

That was before I saw the headline about an ex-veteran who was reportedly 'baked to death' in a jail cell in New York. It seems Rikers Island, a prison that quarters over 12,000 inmates, has malfunctioning ventilation and heating systems, so this inmate died of probable heat stroke (probable, of course, because the autopsy was inconclusive).

The man who died was a 56-year-old veteran who served in the U.S. Marine Corp. He was homeless and suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

While trying to keep warm, he was arrested for trespassing and had an unattainably high bail set -- one he obviously couldn't pay -- so he went to Rikers Island because, according to our justice system, this homeless, mentally ill, former Marine was a criminal who should be thrown in prison.

Didn't this man deserve medical treatment at a hospital?

Didn't this man deserve to be taken care of?

Didn't this man deserve to be treated fairly and humanely?

Didn't this man who served his country -- the most powerful country in the world -- deserve better?

Rikers Island is one of the top ten worst prisons in America, according to Mother Jones. The man who was allowed to die was in a special unit of the massive prison where inmates with mental health problems are 'housed.' No one checked on him and, when he was found dead, his defense attorney was not notified for three days and his family was never notified by the prison, they found out through the media. 

As a society, how can we stay silent about billion dollar healthcare industries and broken prison systems that fail any of us who suffer from mental illness? How can budgets continue to be cut when it comes to mental illness, and how can people who should be patients in hospitals continue to be thrown in prison because there is no where else to send them when they've broken the law?

Statistics show that untreated mentally ill people eventually end up facing police officers for crimes their mental illness, homelessness, drug or alcohol addiction or extreme poverty drive them to. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections:

Prison and jail inmates with physical health, mental health, and substance use problems experience more reintegration difficulties upon release, and typically have poorer outcomes with respect to employment, re-offending, and re-incarceration.

While I will not suggest that every prison system employee is a callous asshole who has no concern for the inmates they are sworn to care for, I will suggest that prison administrators need to collectively manage the problem and refuse to accept inmates who should be in hospitals and treatment centers, rather than prison.

A 2010 report cited in USA Today found that certain states have higher rates of putting mentally ill people in jail than others. Why is that? Would an investigation of these prisons find that privatized prisons -- ones that view inmates as commodities -- have higher than average statistics of incarcerating men and women who need medical treatment rather than punishment? Just asking a question here. I don't know the answer to it.

New York's Acting Department of Corrections Commissioner Mark Cranston assured the public that an investigation is underway. Wow, that puts my mind at ease. In his statement, Cranston labeled Jerome Murdough's death 'unfortunate.' Unfortunate?! Try Appalling. Outrageous. Sickening. Needless. Doesn't a system that accepts the responsibility of holding human beings against their will have a legal duty to make sure those people are not allowed to suffer cruel and unusual punishment or untimely deaths? Maybe 'Criminal' is a better word to describe Jerome's death, Mr. Cranston?

The Justice Department admits that mentally ill prisoners are easy targets for other inmates, are more often preyed upon, and have more trouble with guards for failing to follow rules. Yes, that makes sense, because mentally ill people do not think or act like people who don't suffer from mental illness. That's why they need medical attention. That's why they shouldn't be thrown in prison. That's why people like Jerome Murdough are found dead in their cells.

For more insight into our problematic criminal justice system, visit ACLU: Prisoners' Rights.

H.P. Lovecraft

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."                                                          H.P. Lovecraft


On this very day, 77 years ago, H.P. Lovecraft died in a hospital in Providence, Rhode Island at age 46. His horror stories, more popular now than when he was alive, created dark, rancid, hopeless worlds where humans were stalked and overtaken by evil other-worldly spirits. Lovecraft's fictional entities tortured their victims psychologically rather than physically, making them more cryptic, more terrifying, more thought provoking.

His stories create a sinister, stifling atmosphere where beings lurk in the dark and dwell in the deepest chambers of our brain while they wait for us to let our guard down. He drives imaginations wild and takes readers on a terrifying journey that starts with a sliver of normalcy and ends at the brink of insanity. Lovecraft's stories make people die of fear, yet never let them know what exactly killed them.

Here is an excerpt from one of Lovecraft's scariest short stories called "The Book" courtesy of Dagonbytes.com, a site that offers free online stories that will scare the shit of you. Read it if you dare.

The Book by H.P. Lovecraft (excerpt)

My memories are very confused. There is even much doubt as to where they begin; for at times I feel appalling vistas of years stretching behind me, while at other times it seems as if the present moment were an isolated point in a grey, formless infinity. I am not even certain how I am communicating this message. While I know I am speaking, I have a vague impression that some strange and perhaps terrible mediation will be needed to bear what I say to the points where I wish to be heard. My identity, too, is bewilderingly cloudy. I seem to have suffered a great shock- perhaps from some utterly monstrous outgrowth of my cycles of unique, incredible experience. 
 
These cycles of experience, of course, all stem from that worm-riddled book. I remember when I found it- in a dimly lighted place near the black, oily river where the mists always swirl. That place was very old, and the ceiling-high shelves full of rotting volumes reached back endlessly through windowless inner rooms and alcoves. There were, besides, great formless heaps of books on the floor and in crude bins; and it was in one of these heaps that I found the thing. I never learned its title, for the early pages were missing; but it fell open toward the end and gave me a glimpse of something which sent my senses reeling. 
 
There was a formula- a sort of list of things to say and do- which I recognized as something black and forbidden; something which I had read of before in furtive paragraphs of mixed abhorrence and fascination penned by those strange ancient delvers into the universe's guarded secrets whose decaying texts I loved to absorb. It was a key- a guide- to certain gateways and transitions of which mystics have dreamed and whispered since the race was young, and which lead to freedoms and discoveries beyond the three dimensions and realms of life and matter that we know. Not for centuries had any man recalled its vital substance or known where to find it, but this book was very old indeed. No printing-press, but the hand of some half-crazed monk, had traced these ominous Latin phrases in uncials of awesome antiquity.
 
I remember how the old man leered and tittered, and made a curious sign with his hand when I bore it away. He had refused to take pay for it, and only long afterwards did I guess why. As I hurried home through those narrow, winding, mist-cloaked waterfront streets I had a frightful impression of being stealthily followed by softly padding feet. The centuried, tottering houses on both sides seemed alive with a fresh and morbid malignity- as if some hitherto closed channel of evil understanding had abruptly been opened. I felt that those walls and over-hanging gables of mildewed brick and fungoid plaster and timber- with eyelike, diamond-paned windows that leered- could hardly desist from advancing and crushing me . . . yet I had read only the least fragment of that blasphemous rune before closing the book and bringing it away. 

More ...

Lena Dunham and "Girls"

Despite criticism of it being misogynistic, casting only white people, starring four women who secured their roles through nepotism and airing uncomfortable, gritty scenes that simulate rape, discuss mental illness, show people degraded and flaunt unhealthy relationships, I’m a fan of Lena Dunham’s Girls on HBO.

Dunham’s insatiable need (and extreme courage) to display her imperfect-in-the-eyes-of-society nakedness raises the hackles of critics hell bent on perpetuating the notion that only size zero women have the right to freely display their bodies, and the true message of their critiques is loud and clear: If we (meaning the judgmental dicks of society) consider you beautiful, we want to get off on your nakedness, but if you don’t fulfill our fantasy of what beauty is supposed to look like (a make-up plastered skeleton), we call it offensive and take swipes.

Lena Dunham’s spirited lack of self-consciousness makes her a role model for women, young and old. She’s unafraid of what others think of her and proudly defends her artistic style and her personal choices to be who she chooses to be. She’s shows us her ugly side (on the inside) in Girls and shows – dare I say it – normal human flaws. Ones that all of us possess. 

Yes. We. Are. All. Flawed. Inside. And. Out.

Let’s Focus On Ourselves, Own Our Flaws.

  

Let us question why sit-coms, over and over again, cast midde-aged, overweight, balding, frumpy men as the proud, mismatched husbands of young, thin, vivacious, sexy women. Why aren’t critics hucking it up over this instead of fretting over a young woman who is comfortable in her own skin?

Girls' main character loves a man who, at times, borderline rapes her yet at other times, shows us how much he, in his own fucked-up way, loves her with all his heart. I think Lena Dunham deserves credit for screenwriting that borders on therapeutic journaling by letting the characters unabashedly share their hopes, dreams and shortcomings without concerning themselves with what anyone will think of them.

Perhaps we would all benefit from a healthy dose of introspection and self-exposure.

Here are a few YouTube clips of Lena Dunham's Girls:

Maine GOP Rep. Lawrence Lockman: Men Should Be Allowed To Rape Women

“If a woman has (the right to abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.”

Who would make such vile statements?

Maine Republican lawmaker Lawrence Lockman, that's who.

Here's his Maine House GOP page. 

HuffPost reported that the lawmaker apologized for the comment.

Does he really think an apology will make this go away or make us think this is not how he really feels about women and rape? He is currently serving his first term in office. Let's hope Maine voters are perceptive enough to make it his last. 

If you can bear to read more about Lockman, here's Mike Tipping's blog.

Toilets

One of the many wonderful toilets of Budapest, Hungary. Photo Credit: Troy K.

Taking a shit is a satisfying experience.

Too crass? Let me try again ...

Passing excrement from the bowels through the anus is elating.

Hmm ... I'll give it another try.

Discharging waste products from the body through the anal opening is a spiritual experience.

Getting closer ... one last try:

Finding a vacant toilet when you really have to move your bowels is an instant dopamine releaser, and an empty bowel elicits feelings that border on euphoria. (This is the one)

An old Jamaican nurse once asked me, 'Who is King, the bowel or the brain?' then passionately answered: 'Mun, the bowel is King, because the brain cannot think if the bowel is blocked.'

So many people have an aversion to talking about bowel movements, even though it's something all of us do. Even the word toilet, which I think is a great word, is avoided as we "go to the restroom -- take a trip to the ladies room -- take a bathroom break -- go number two or, my personal favorite, powder one's nose." Those of us who are lucky enough to have toilets use them faithfully, but don't pay them the respect they deserve.  Maybe if all of us wore a tiny gold-plated toilet on a chain around our necks, we would be less afraid to talk about our bowels. Maybe that would save people's lives and make them unafraid to seek medical attention for bowel-related problems. Maybe that would force society to offer more public toilets, rather than allow businesses to post signs that say 'Restrooms for Patrons Only.' How dare business owners who turn away a person seeking the use of a toilet? The further degradation of a normal, healthy, bodily function.

The World Health Organization estimates that 2.6 billion people don't have access to or the luxury of using and flushing a toilet each day. This includes over 600,000 homeless people in America. Unsanitary conditions lead to a plethora of preventable diseases and early deaths for millions of people who desperately need the toilets that we're so embarrassed to talk about.

The National Institutes of Health estimate that 60 to 70 million Americans suffer from diseases of the digestive tract that range from hemorrhoids to diverticulitis to irritable bowel syndrome to colon cancer. Our inability to discuss our bowels and the lack of public toilets in our society add to the problems of millions of people who suffer bowel-related conditions -- ones they are embarrassed to discuss because of society's need to not talk about something as vile and, at the same time, life sustaining as healthy bowel movements.

Add to this discussion the fact that technology has not advanced the flushing toilet in hundreds of years, and human waste is a prevalent and ongoing burden to our health and environment. Advances in sanitation seems like a no-brainer and should be top priority for genius scientists, since all of us are the glorious creators of human waste (a.k.a. bowel movements) yet we rarely hear everyday discussions of how to rid the world of our own stool.

In all fairness, there are droves of researchers who discuss and work on sanitation issues daily, and I don't wish to discredit their passion or their work. A simple YouTube search offers video after video of people dedicated to improving toilets and waste management. 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced the winner of their "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" that urged researchers at some of the top universities to develop "next-generation” toilets that will deliver safe and sustainable sanitation to the 2.5 billion people worldwide who don’t have it."

Hats off to the honorable winner - California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Remembering John Lennon

Reminiscing about a geeky, smart-alecky, somewhat immature John Lennon can’t help but warp us to his ‘Beatles are more popular than Jesus’ comment or his admitted jealously of Paul McCartney or his nutsy, wtf affair with May Pang and, of course, let’s not forget his cringe-worthy, mid-performance mock of a developmentally delayed person; yet, the mention of John Lennon, for me anyway, brings memories of a man who tried to heal the world and touch humanity and bring us all together with lyrics and actions that were lessons in peace and love and harmony, and a man whose life was cut bitterly and tragically short by a religious fanatic who thought he was an honest-to-gawd, come-to-life version of the fictional protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye. 

The murderer, whose wife knew he was going to murder John Lennon yet did nothing to stop him, was Mark David Chapman, and he still sits in a prison cell and applies for parole every two years as law allows with his requests for freedom being denied (so far) and Yoko Ono voicing her opposition each time. 

Photo: Annie Leibovitz

 

Right after firing five bullets into Lennon’s back, Chapman sat down on the curbstone, pulled out a copy of The Catcher in the Rye and started reading. The killer -- not running or hiding -- instead sat in plain view, listening to the panicked screams of onlookers, watching people administer aid to Lennon, watching Yoko watching her husband die before her eyes -- his apathy making the whole scene even more savage, more cruel, more raw.

John Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980, the same night that photographer Annie Liebovitz did a photo shoot with John and Yoko and created a beautiful photo that showed us a timid Yoko who didn't take her clothes off and a carefree John who bared all.

Howard Cosell was the first to publicly announce Lennon’s death, right in the middle of a New England Patriots football game broadcast. John Lennon was only 40. He left behind a wife and two children who loved him, fans who adored him, and a whole world who wanted to hear more of him.

Source: Wikipedia

YouTube Video Credit: Aviv Ben Israel

Don't Be Afraid To Help Someone

Beyond words. This woman pulled over on the side of the road and saved her nephew's life by doing CPR. This is a scary thing to do - even for experienced medical personnel - but, she tried and single-handedly got the baby breathing again. She's a real hero.

This woman was trained in CPR several years before this incident but for anyone not trained in CPR, most doctors agree that you should try to do something to help someone who is unconscious and not breathing. Fear stops people from acting, and waiting for paramedics to arrive usually proves fatal for victims.

So, people should at least try to do compressions on adult victims and try to give rescue breaths to children and infants (if people are unconscious and not breathing). You can't harm an unconscious and non-breathing person because they are already dead, and they lose all chance of being revived if you don't at least try.

I've included a few links to help laypeople with no training. You won't make things worse, everything you do may help save a life. Always yell out for someone to call 911, then get to work doing whatever you can:

If you're afraid to do compressions on a baby, just give rescue breaths.
http://www.parents.com/baby/care/american-baby-how-tos/give-baby-cpr/

If you're afraid to give breaths to an adult, just do compressions.
http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/pocket.html

(Al Diaz/The Miami Herald/AP Photo)

Shirley Temple Black

Shirley Temple died yesterday and, while I have great respect for the accomplishments of the adult Shirley Temple Black, I do and always have found the Shirley Temple movies that frequented the much-limited and purportedly family-oriented television channels that I watched during my childhood to be distressing and uncomfortable to view. Watching a little girl wearing a super-tiny dress, while singing and dancing in front of the groups of middle-aged, ogling men who were consistently her co-stars always left me with an unsettled "something's not right" feeling in my gut ... even as a child.

And as an adult looking back at clips of Shirley Temple movies, I realize that my childhood instincts were correct. It was odd and totally unacceptable, to say the least, that the male-dominated movie industry saw fit to cast a little girl who conveyed the persona of an adult woman as the star of over 40 movies. The cutesy little girl always seemed to be without a home and without any women to care for her, leaving her to be adopted, housed, fed, led by the hand or, in one way or another, accommodated by adult male characters who always seemed just a bit too enamored and intrigued and delighted to be in the company of a little girl. Men who held her hand a little too much and watched her sing and dance just a little too closely.

Plot summaries of a few randomly chosen Shirley Temple movies show a little girl who was tended to by men, men and more men in every movie. I find this eerie and disturbing, which by no means is meant to insult the honor of the late Shirley Temple Black, but does make me question the motives of parents who sat back and saw nothing perverse in what Hollywood did to their daughter. Memories of Jon Benet Ramsey come to mind as she was another beautiful little girl who was taught to assume an adult persona and entertain ogling adult audiences.

Here are the movie descriptions that I wrote using info. from Wikipedia. (Thank you Wikipedia).

Curly Top – Here, the curly-haired, mischievous, adorable little Shirley Temple has no parents and lives in an orphanage. The trustees come to visit and one of the wealthy, male trustees is so enamored with the little girl that he decides to adopt her (along with her sister) and brings them home to live with him. The wealthy trustee eventually marries Shirley Temple’s sister, Mary.  

Bright Eyes – Shirley Temple’s father is dead. Her and her mother live in a mansion where Temple’s mother works as a maid for room and board. When Shirley Temple’s mother dies, the wealthy family wants to send Shirley Temple away, but the crotchety old wheelchair-bound grandfather is so fond of the little girl that he nicknames her ‘Bright Eyes’ and insists that she stay at the house to keep him company.

Dimples – Shirley Temple plays a little girl named Dimples who sings in the streets to make money with her thieving grandfather, with whom she lives. They perform at a wealthy woman’s party, and the wealthy woman’s nephew takes Dimples to live with him and perform in a Broadway show that he is producing.

Little Miss Marker – Shirley Temple plays a little girl named Marky who lives with her father. Marky’s father gives her to a group of gangsters as collateral for a gambling debt he owes them. Shirley Temple then lives with a group of men who are gangsters, bookies and thieves for the rest of the movie.  

Wee Willie Winkie – Here, Shirley Temple and her mother are brought to a British military base. Little Shirley spends all her time befriending and entertaining the male officers and soldiers. She also visits an imprisoned officer to cheer him up.    

I am still bothered when I see movie clips of Shirley Temple's movies as I view her as a child victim.

When Lawmakers Are Allowed to Embed Their Political Agendas Into Healthcare Laws ...

Marlise Munoz (who is callously being referred to as a 'brain-dead pregnant woman') has finally been allowed to die peacefully. After suffering a tragic event several weeks ago that left her on a ventilator with no signs of brain activity, she was declared to be in a "brain-dead" state by her doctors. Adding to her misfortune was the fact that she was 14 weeks pregnant when she died, which prompted the hospital treating her to deny the family’s request to stop mechanical ventilation as Section 166.049 of the Texas Advance Directives Act states, “A person may not withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment under this subchapter from a pregnant patient.”

Representatives from Texas’ John Peter Smith Hospital, where Marlise was brought by paramedics after being found unresponsive by her husband, chose to ignore the fact that the fetus had no chance of reaching viability, and an article by NPR summarizes the hospital’s probable reasoning in allowing the family to suffer the consequences of watching their already-deceased loved one being mechanically maintained for several weeks.

“The doctors and the hospital explained that it didn't matter what Marlise or her husband or anyone else wanted — their hands were tied. She would stay on the ventilator until her 14-week-old fetus was delivered or died.

The law protects the hospital from all liability as long as it keeps the pregnant patient on life support. It doesn't actually forbid the hospital to remove support, but the hospital loses its legal immunity if it does. And that seemed to be the guiding light for the lawyers representing John Peter Smith Hospital.”

It took a lawsuit from Marlise's husband for "cruel and unusual mutilation of a corpse" (his beloved wife) for a judge to finally order the hospital to stop treating her as if she was still alive. In court, the hospital also acknowledged that the fetus was not viable and had been deprived of oxygen for one hour on the day Marlise Munoz died. 


When politicians, judges, religious spokespersons, anti-choice advocates, and protestors are allowed to interfere with the actions of medical professionals or dictate the provisions of health care laws, it opens the door for medical mismanagement and the prolonged suffering of sick people and their loved ones. Healthcare decisions must be made by healthcare professionals in order for the medical system to work in favor of patients. 

When lawmakers are allowed to embed their reproductive beliefs and political agendas into legal documents, such as the one hidden in the Texas Advance Directives Act, it allows pregnant women to be treated as non-entities whose sole purpose is to house, incubate, and maintain the fetus within them. It invisibilizes women to a level that makes them inhuman and unworthy of consideration as a person who is separate from their fetus. It also allows a fetus to always and without question take precedence over the woman whose body it is attached to.

My thoughts go out to the Munoz family as they grieve the loss of their loved one and recover from the trauma of fighting in court for the right to let Marlise die in peace.

Pete Seeger

I reluctantly admit that I spent more than half my life singing Pete Seeger songs, but didn't know who Pete Seeger was. By my mid 30s, I finally paid some long overdue attention to the social activist, political hero, environmentalist, anti-war protestor, fighter for justice, voice of marginalized people, and McCarthy Era blacklistee who died at the age of 94 on Monday, January 27, 2014.

MSNBC - You Gotta Be Kiddin'

What is wrong with MSNBC? They think Justin Bieber is more important that a discussion of NSA spying and our right to privacy? I feel sorry for Andrea Mitchell - just doin' what TPTB tell her to do when she interrupted a real discussion to show "breaking news" about Bieber being arrested.

Death Penalty

The death penalty always brings up unanswerable questions – for me, anyway.

If it was my loved one who was tortured/abused/murdered/left to suffer/dead at the hands of another person, would I have any care or concern for the safety/well-being/comfort of the person found guilty of the crime?

Probably not.

Would I lose sleep at night wondering if the conviction was wrong and the person convicted was innocent?

Probably not.  

And if my loved one was the murderer/torturer/sociopath who committed vile acts against another person, would I have compassion and concern for how they were treated, despite the crime they committed?

Probably.

Would I forever wonder if they were really innocent of the crime they were convicted of?

Probably.

An Ohio inmate was recently executed by lethal injection with a new drug combination that, it seems, took 25 minutes to actually end his life. Newspaper reports describe his clenched fists, gasping respirations and heaving abdomen while he was dying. This serves as proof for many as a cruel way to die … a legal murder that took longer than it should. His family (who I also consider victims) stood by and watched the person they love, in spite of his conviction for the rape and murder of a woman, endure prolonged suffering while the state put him to death.

Discussions of Eighth Amendment violations (no cruel and unusual punishment allowed in civilized society) have begun, and law suits will, no doubt, soon emerge.

As with all social, moral, ethical issues, people are divided. I have read comments ranging from calls for the justice system to never let this happen again, to zero empathy for the inmate, to remembrance of the murder victim, to calls to end the death penalty once and for all.

I guess I’m wimping out on making a real decision about how I stand on this one. 

The billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry has perfected death penalty drug cocktails that can kill people instantly but, ironically, European drug sales of these amazing kill-you-instantly lethal injections is being blocked because of pressure from groups opposed to the death penalty. (This suggestion that drug companies are letting protestors dictate the sale of lethal injection drugs and, in effect, their bottom line seems odd to me, but I honestly have no in-depth knowledge of this).  

This whole situation seems lose-lose for everyone.