j’s blog

U.S. Newswire : Releases : “Amnesty International’s Annual Death Penalty Report Finds Global Trend Toward Abolition”

WASHINGTON, April 4 /U.S. Newswire/ — During 2004, at least 3,797 people were executed in 25 countries and at least 7,395 were sentenced to death in 64 countries, according to an Amnesty International report released today. The United States’ contribution to the worldwide total dropped from 65 the previous year to 59 in 2004. The United States remained one of the top executing countries, along with China, Iran, and Vietnam.

“Our report indicates that governments and citizens around the world have realized what the United States government refuses to admit-that the death penalty is an inhumane, antiquated form of punishment,” said Dr. William F. Schulz, executive director, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). “Thomas Jefferson once wrote that ‘laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind;’ it is past time for our government to live up to this Jeffersonian ideal and let go of the brutal practices of the past.”

Releasing its annual worldwide statistics on the use of capital punishment, Amnesty International called on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, currently meeting in Geneva, to condemn the death penalty as a violation of fundamental human rights. It also urged the U.S. to join the myriad countries taking steps to abolish the death penalty, and applauded the March 1st Supreme Court decision removing the United States from the list of nations that execute juvenile offenders.

“It’s alarming that the United States was the last country in the world to formally reject the application of the death penalty to minors,” said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, AIUSA’s director of the Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. “The United States should now join the international community in condemning the practice everywhere, and use its international clout to urge countries like China and Iran to conform to international treaties which forbid them from executing minors.”

Amnesty International also called particular attention to instances where U.S. citizens were sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit.

“The cases of Derrick Jamison and the other 118 individuals released from death row since 1973 demonstrate that no judicial system is infallible. However sophisticated the system, the death penalty will always carry with it the risk of lethal error,” Amnesty International USA said. In February 2005, Derrick Jamison became the 119th wrongfully convicted person to be released from death row on the grounds of innocence.

Five countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2004: Bhutan, Greece, Samoa, Senegal and Turkey. At year’s end, 120 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

——

The higher number of executions in 2004 and the higher concentration of executions in the “top executing” countries reflect a change in the method Amnesty International uses to calculate the number of executions in China. Amnesty International believes that our current, estimated figure for China still represents only the tip of the iceberg. For example, in March 2004 a delegate at the National People’s Congress said that “nearly 10,000″ people are executed per year in China.

Yahoo! News - Rejected seal cub seeks family with bath

MOSCOW (AFP) - An aquarium in Russia’s far north is looking for a human foster family for a seal cub rejected by its parents because it was born grey rather than white, Russian daily Vremia Novostei reported.

Applicants would need a bathtub, salt water for the cub to splash around in and 100 grammes (3.5 ounces) of fish per day, for the moment, said the Murmansk aquarium.

It also explained the adoption would be temporary as the grey seal’s parents would accept it once fully grown, when grey seal cubs ordinarily turn grey from their cub colour of white.

Yahoo! News - Humans Must Change Course for Planet to Sustain Future Generations - Science Panel

Abid Aslam, OneWorld US

WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 31 (OneWorld) - Our children and grandchildren will live in a world hostile to human habitation unless we curb runaway consumption and the environmental abuses that fuel modern development, more than 1,300 scientists have warned in an unprecedented study of Earth’s ability to sustain life.

‘’At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning,'’ representatives of the science panel said in a statement. ‘’Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.'’

Growing demand for food, fresh water, timber, fiber, and fuel led humans to change ecosystems on which life depends more rapidly and extensively over the past 50 years than in any comparable time in human history, the experts said in a ‘’Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.'’

‘’This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth,'’ they said, adding that extinction stalks 10-30 percent of mammal, bird, and amphibian species. Possible consequences include outbreaks of disease among humans or among animals and plants on which we rely for food.

Two-thirds of ecosystems on which life depends already have been degraded or exploited too much, the study said. Two natural resources–fisheries and fresh water–appeared to be well below levels that could sustain current, much less future, demand.

Nevertheless, major changes in consumption, better education, and new technology could reduce the damage and improve the outlook.

If humans do not alter course, the scientists warned, then these systems likely will deteriorate further over the next half-century as the increased use of resources that accompanied economic growth in the late 20th century continues at an unsustainable rate.

The assessment was aimed at influencing governments’ thinking on how to achieve the goals set out by four major international treaties covering the protection of species and environments. It further concluded that international commitments to improve the health, education, and economic opportunities of the world’s poorest people could not be met without addressing environmental crises.

‘’Any progress achieved in addressing the goals of poverty and hunger eradication, improved health, and environmental protection is unlikely to be sustained if most of the ecosystem ’services’ on which humanity relies continue to be degraded,'’ the report said.

The situation is not hopeless, so long as humans change the way we manage our economies, run our businesses, and consume goods and services.

The report’s recommendations for urgently needed action included removing subsidies to agriculture, fisheries, and oil and gas companies that encourage environmental harm–for example by rewarding overproduction, which gives farmers an incentive to ignore gluts and drive up surpluses by using chemical fertilizers.

Rather, the scientists recommended paying landowners to manage property in ways that help the environment, and using free-market incentives to reduce farm pollution and global-warming gas emissions.

Currently, for example, airlines pay for the fuel they buy but not for the fumes they emit by burning it. The study suggested such ‘’externalities'’ should be factored into companies’ bottom lines, adding that ways existed to soften the impact on businesses and consumers.

The scientists also sought greater investment in cleaner agricultural and energy technology–particularly for harvesting wind, solar, and other forms of renewable power–and urged that oceans and other critical areas receive greater protection from development.

Progress has been made in some areas, the scientists said. New forests planted mainly in the Northern Hemisphere have begun to make a dent in global warming although the problem itself remains critical.

Policymakers, businesses, and consumers should not be naive about the tasks that lie ahead.

‘’These changes will be large and are not currently under way,'’ the World Resources Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that worked on the study, said in a statement.

The study differed slightly from previous ones by categorizing ecosystems in terms of the ‘’services,'’ or benefits, that they provide people–timber for building, for example, clean air to breathe, fish for food, and fibers to make clothes.

It said a booming world population and the demands of modernization drove the overuse of these natural resources after World War II.

Real human progress was made. Economies and food production soared. But the cost to the environment now imperils future prosperity, the study said.

Take the case of agriculture. More land was converted to plant and animal farming since 1945 than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined. More than half of all the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, first made in 1913, used on the planet were applied after 1985. Crop, livestock, and aquaculture yields flourished.

The cost? Nitrogen and phosphate farm runoff has choked off oxygen, creating coastal ‘’dead zones'’ around the world and the problem likely will worsen, threatening fishery production and more. In the United States, such dead zones include those in the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, and Puget Sound.

Four years of research by 1,360 experts in 95 countries culminated in the 2,500-page study, released Wednesday and based on evidence that enjoyed consensus endorsement by scientific bodies around the world. The United Nations, World Bank, international environmental and development agencies, and U.S. philanthropies backed the effort. The private sector and non-governmental organizations provided advice and guidance.

‘’The overriding conclusion of this assessment is that it lies within the power of human societies to ease the strains we are putting on the nature services of the planet, while continuing to use them to bring better living standards to all,'’ the science panel’s directors concluded.

‘’Achieving this, however, will require radical changes in the way nature is treated at every level of decision-making and new ways of cooperation between government, business and civil society.'’

This is one of my posts from my flickr site:

canada on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Photo caption:
A dead harp seal is left in its hole on a ice floe in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Prince Edward Island, Canada on the first day of the annual seal hunt Tuesday, March 29, 2005.

Sophia Elise says:

so what do they just kill them for fun? that is DISGUSTING

jim says:

This is a complex issue. If it were killed just for fun I’d say its not only disgusting, but criminal. But they are killed for a purpose, pelts, meat, etc. But, ask yourself, do you use animals for a purpose? Do you eat meat? wear furs, leather, ivory or other animal parts? use products that were tested on animals, such as some makeup and household products? would you refuse to used medical treatment on your loved ones that was derived from animal experimentation that caused the animal suffering?

The fact is that humans not only kill animals for fun, fur and meat, etc. but as everyone knows, we bring a great number of them into existence for the express purpose of causing them suffering or killing them to in some way benefit us. We even used to do this, and still do it in some parts of the world, with our fellow humans. Maybe it’s in our nature to use other animals, including the human ones, for our benefit and survival. Maybe it is impossible or incredibly difficult for most humans to rise above this. What if we are genetically ‘programmed’ so to speak to use and oppress other animals? Have you ever noticed how often the stronger uses, manipulates, benefits from the weaker much more than vice versa? Maybe only some enlightened animals are able to understand and stop acting this way?

HSUS Protect Seals

The 2005 Seal Hunt: We’re There to Stop It

At dawn on Tuesday, the largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals on the planet began off Canada’s Atlantic coast. By the end of this year’s hunt, more than 300,000 baby seals will have been brutally killed—many, incredibly, as young as 12 days old. The Humane Society of the United States is on the front lines in Canada, reporting and videotaping events as they unfold and fighting to halt this atrocity. Stand with us today and stop the seal hunt forever.

Why boycott Canadian seafood?
Seal hunting is an off-season activity conducted by fishers from Canada’s East Coast. They earn a small fraction of their incomes from sealing and the rest from commercial fisheries. Canadian seafood exports to the United States contribute $3 billion annually to the Canadian economy–dwarfing the few million dollars provided by the seal hunt. The connection between the commercial fishing industry and the seal hunt in Canada gives consumers all over the world the power to end this cruel and brutal slaughter.

But seriously, sort of, this seems like a dumb waste of our tax payer money. Has anyone looked into why it cost 1/2 a million dollars to shock a bunch of pigs? Now that’s what I call ‘pork barrell’ spending. Why doesn’t this ’scientist’ just head on down to the slaughter house with his stun guns and 10 gallon hat and give those about to die anyway a little zap on the way to the guillotine? If they survive the shock, he can still chop their heads off.

Some of the pigs are going to be high on coke and doped with pain killers too. So if this fella can’t shock to death a bunch of doped up, crack head pigs, does that mean that we ordinary sometimes sober citizens will be just fine?

Yahoo! News - Wis. Professor to Test Stun Guns on Pigs

Wis. Professor to Test Stun Guns on Pigs

Tue Mar 29

By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press Writer

MADISON, Wis. - A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to study whether stun guns alone can kill pigs — or whether other medical factors must be at play — as part of an effort to understand why 70 people have died in North America since 2001 after being shocked by Tasers.

Led by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, outraged animal rights activists are calling for an end to the two-year study by John Webster, a professor emeritus of biomedical engineering.

Police hail stun guns as a nonlethal way to restrain unruly suspects. But critics blame the weapons for dozens of deaths, and police departments are reviewing how they use the devices, which shoot two small darts carrying about 50,000 volts of electricity to temporarily paralyze people.

Webster wants to test his hypothesis that Taser-related deaths were the result of heart failure fueled by drug use and other medical factors, not electrocution by the devices. To do so, researchers will begin in the next month studying how Taser electrical currents flow through 150-pound pigs.

Of three groups of pigs in the study, one will be given cocaine, one will be shocked with the devices, and one will be given both cocaine and electric blasts. Some will be subjected to Webster’s “SuperTaser,” up to 30 times as powerful as the model police use. All pigs will be on anesthesia so they won’t feel pain.

“If the hypothesis is correct that Tasers do not electrocute the heart, then why are people dying in custody after they have been shot by Tasers? The people on our team have hypotheses why that’s true and we intend to answer that question,” Webster said. “Our goal is to save lives.”

Animal rights activists say the study, funded by a $500,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant, is cruel and unnecessary. They plan protests on the UW-Madison campus starting this week.

“Shocking more pigs is only going to add their numbers to the Taser-related death statistics,” Patti Gilman, whose brother died after being shot with a Taser in British Columbia in June 2004, wrote in a letter to the school. “Robert’s death never should have happened. And neither should these experiments.”

In a letter to PETA this month, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said the study could have a significant impact on the use of stun guns. He said researchers have no other alternative than to use pigs, whose hearts are more like humans than any other species.

In Wisconsin, the state Department of Justice convened an advisory committee to create guidelines for police training and use of Tasers. On Tuesday, the committee is scheduled to hold its first public hearing in Stevens Point, where Webster will be among four presenters.

Webster said his research could lead to advice for how police should use the devices, standards for how powerful stun guns can be, and instructions for emergency room physicians on how to treat those who have been shocked.

Webster suggested some of the Taser-related deaths were from a rare condition known as malignant hyperthermia, in which bodies essentially overheat. He will test that theory on swine that have been specially bred to have the condition.

Other suspects may have died if potassium that is released into the blood stream after muscle contractions caused by a Taser shock reached the heart, Webster said. Cocaine use might be another factor, he said.

Webster’s research is the first independent look at how Tasers affect pigs’ hearts. Research published in January sponsored by Taser International, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based maker of the devices, found that 15 times the charge from ordinary stun guns was needed to electrocute the heart of even the smallest pigs studied.

Taser said Webster is well-qualified to study the devices, which it says are safe. The company says Tasers are being used by more than 7,000 law enforcement, military and correctional agencies in the world.

“We welcome Professor Webster’s research as it can provide continued independent research concerning the safety of our life-saving Taser technology,” said company spokesman Steve Tuttle.

Taser research on animals dates to 1989, involving dogs, bulls and pigs, but Webster’s study is the only known such research now under way, according to PETA.

While all the pigs will be filled with anesthesia, they will be euthanized after the experiments, said Webster, who predicted about 30 pigs would be used. The research could create a computer model that would eliminate the need for more animal testing, he said.

“I think this is an outstanding example of one of those questions that can only be answered using animals,” said Eric Sandgren, a UW-Madison professor who heads a committee that oversees animal research. “Boy, there’s been a lot of deaths from this. If the alternative is to go back to using bullets, let’s find out how to make this safe.”

That’s a worthy goal, but researchers should instead study humans who have survived Taser shocks and autopsy reports of those who died, said Laura Yanne of PETA. She promised an “unprecedented” protest on Tuesday, but would not release details.

“Subjecting pigs to cruel experiments is not the way to go on this. It’s so obvious,” she said. “This is a half-million dollar boondoggle.”

___

On the Net:

Taser International: http://www.taser.com/flash.htm

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: http://www.peta.org

Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation

NOTE: Terrisfight.org is the official website for the Schindler family. The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation is the official organization responsible for speaking on behalf of the Schindler family and for authorizing the raising of funds for research and Terri’s legal defense. The Schindlers appreciate all the hundreds of thousands of individuals and groups in America and around the world who have been and continue to be supportive of Terri. They realize that “Terri’s fight” has become a bigger issue than their family and Terri alone; however, they do not, nor could they possibly, monitor and/or approve all of the groups and individuals who are concerned about and speak out in defense of Terri and others like her. The Schindlers have not authorized any other individuals or organizations to conduct private research for Terri or to raise funds to finance such research.

This site maintained and hosted by the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation.
Copyright 2004-05 Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation.
4615 Gulf Blvd #104-103 - St Petersburg Beach, FL 33706

Not her brother or one of the brothers, but a “brother”. You know the guy that kind of looks like Friar Tuck or a monk from the middle ages and is frequently at the side of Terri Schiavo’s mother? His name is Brother Paul and this is his “letter” and website:

Read Brother Paul’s letter:

Letter from Brother Paul

Br. Paul J. O’Donnell, fbp
Guardian Overall

Donations can be sent or delivered to:
Franciscan Brothers of Peace
Queen of Peace Friary
1289 Lafond Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104-2035
United States of America

The Franciscan Brothers of Peace are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization listed in the Kennedy Directory. All donations are tax-deductible.

The Franciscan Brothers of Peace have Ecclesial Approbation in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Looking around the State of Florida govt. website, this is all I’ve found so far on living wills:

Living Wills / DMS Intranet Quick Links / DMS Employee Resources / DMS Home - DMS

Living Wills

Recently, we have been painfully reminded of just how important it is to be prepared for unforeseen health complications.

To ease the burden on your loved ones, should you find yourself in a similar situation, I encourage you to consider completing the Living Will and Designation of Health Care Surrogate forms available below. I also urge you to discuss this issue with your spouse or loved one, and your doctor, and give them copies of your completed forms.

I hope that you and your family will never be faced with a decision of this type, but in case you are, a living will can make a horrible decision at least bearable for those left behind.

Tom Lewis, Jr., Secretary
Department of Management Services

Section 765, Florida Statutes, Health Care Advance Directives

Yahoo! News - Head of Whistleblower Office Criticized

Thu Mar 3

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The head of the federal office responsible for protecting government whistleblowers is the focus of a complaint filed Thursday by some of his own employees, who say he is undermining laws that encourage workers to expose wrongdoing.

Scott Bloch, who runs the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, refuses to enforce laws that protect whistleblowers in the federal workplace, especially gays, and is retaliating against his own staff, the employees alleged.

Bloch’s office called the allegations a set of "baseless charges" and said they would be forwarded to the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency "in the hope that they will be able to put them to rest once and for all."

According to the employees’ complaint, a new policy instituted by Bloch resulted in the agency closing more than 600 cases in only a few months, without referring any of them for investigation of whether the employees’ allegations of government misconduct are true.

Under the policy, the employees allege career staff in the agency’s disclosure unit are not permitted to contact whistleblowers but are required to close their cases unless their written filings are sufficient on their face to establish a basis for investigation.

"While publicly congratulating himself for reducing the caseload … Mr. Bloch has failed to explain just what happened to all of the cases he closed," said the complaint filed in Washington.

Agency spokeswoman Cathy Deeds said, "It’s absolutely false that any directive was given that whistleblowers should not be called." She said that in some circumstances, it was not necessary to call the whistleblowers because they already provided sufficient information to process the case.

Early this year, Bloch reassigned a dozen employees from the agency’s headquarters to offices around the country. According to the complaint, the reassignments were the result of friction between the employees and Bloch.

Among those reassigned was the office’s expert on the Hatch Act, the law that restricts political activity by federal workers at all levels of government.

Bloch came under fire last year when he moved to deny gay federal workers protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and removed references to sexual orientation from the agency’s Web site and complaint forms.

The White House affirmed President Bush (news - web sites)’s support for protecting gay federal workers from discrimination after some Democratic lawmakers complained.

In a letter to Bush, the employees’ lawyer, Debra S. Katz, wrote: "Mr. Bloch ignored your express direction that federal agencies enforce" anti-discrimination laws against gays.

Since the controversy, Bloch has doubled the number of political appointees at the agency and issued a gag order barring his employees from talking to the press or Congress about internal agency matters, the complaint alleged.

___

On the Net:

U.S. Office of Special Counsel: http://www.osc.gov/