Jim Henley gives yet another favorable review of Batman.
Just a Quick Question
I really am trying to keep my now meaningless promise to stop talking about Schiavo, but I just have one quick question.
Assume Michael Schiavo did in fact wait 70 minutes to call 911 (instead of just goofing up the time 15 years later in an interview), and through the mystical powers of faith-healing, she was revived. What could he possibly be charged with? Is not calling 911 fast enough even a crime?
Here is a more cynical take than mine (is that possible?).
Nothing in the autopsy report prevents those who opposed removing Schiavo’s feeding tube from continuing to insist they were right. It’s legitimate and honorable to argue on philosophical grounds that every medical decision in a tragic circumstance such as Schiavo’s should be made on the side of keeping the sick person alive.
But those who supported an extraordinary use of federal power to force their own conclusion against the judgment of state courts knew that philosophical arguments would not be enough. Most Americans were uneasy about compelling Schiavo’s husband, Michael, to keep his wife alive if — as the state courts had concluded and as the autopsy confirmed on Wednesday — she had suffered irreversible brain damage and was incapable of recovering.
So the big-government conservatives had to invent a story. They had to insist that they knew, just knew , more about Terri Schiavo’s condition than the doctors on the scene. They had to question Michael Schiavo’s motives and imply that he wanted to, well, get rid of her.
And rather than contrition, now the sad story moves on in a new perverse direction- an investigation in to whether Michael Schiavo called 911 fast enough.
What Were They Thinking
What was this company thinking?
The Guidant Corporation said yesterday that it was recalling about 29,000 implanted heart devices because of flaws that might cause them to short-circuit when they are supposed to deliver a potentially life-saving shock.
The recall, which comes at the urging of the Food and Drug Administration, involves three models of defibrillators made by Guidant. In the case of one model, the Ventak Prizm 2 DR Model 1861, Guidant did not tell doctors for more than three years that it was prone to electrical failure because of a design flaw. The company also disclosed yesterday for the first time that two other Guidant units had also repeatedly short-circuited.
The company said it was aware of two recent deaths involving the units at issue. It is not clear how much the recalls may cost Guidant.
Goodness. This is like the kind of perfidy you read about in a John Grisham novel. Why did they finally decide to do something now? Oh:
But yesterday’s disclosure that Guidant also knew that other popular company models beside the Prizm 2 were prone to short-circuiting raises further questions about how the company handled such issues.
An F.D.A. official also questioned whether Guidant had acted properly when it recently rushed out a letter to doctors notifying them that the Prizm 2 had short-circuited in over 25 known cases, including the March death of a 21-year-old student.
The company took the action late last month when it became aware that problems with the device, which date back to 2002, were going to be publicized in other forums…
After the March death of a college student, Joshua Oukrop, doctors in Minnesota learned from Guidant that the Prizm 2 defibrillator they had implanted in him in 2001 had a history of electrical failures related to a design flaw.
The physicians, who had been treating Mr. Oukrop for a genetic heart disease that put him at risk of sudden cardiac arrest, said they urged Guidant at that time to notify other doctors. But company officials said they did not plan to do so because they did not see the problem as significant. The company did send a letter to doctors about the device in late May just as The New York Times was publishing an article about the Prizm 2.
The families of anyone who died should be able to sue this company out of existence and the executives responsible should be charged criminally if this is true.
Batman
Apparently, Batman 0wnz.
And for you geeks, google in l33t-speak.
And I vote for Moe, Larry, and Cheese!
Ceviche
In case you are wondering, the ceviche came out great. I used:
Sea scallops
Shrimp
Red Snapper
Mango
Peach
Green and Red pepper
Jalapeno
Roma tomatoes
Limes
Lemons
Cilantro
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
I whipped it all up, let it cook in the fridge all afternoon, and placed in a bowl lined with greens and topped with sliced avocado.
And I washed it down with Laphroiag.
It was as tasty as it was pretty. If I don’t post tomorrow, it is because I have dropped dead from food poisoning.
Fictional Books Fiction Choices
Ted Barlow has his list of books up from the book survey.
Michele’s can be found here, Kimmitt’s can be found here, and my list is here. I have given up on the others- they just won’t play.
And Gary Farber has decided to be coy and won’t pare his list down below 100 books.
Michael Demmons has his list here.
Kentucky Fried Feminism*
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester fought her way through an enemy ambush south of Baghdad, killing three insurgents with her M-4 rifle to save fellow soldiers’ lives — and yesterday became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star medal for valor in combat.
The 23-year-old retail store manager from Bowling Green, Ky., won the award for skillfully leading her team of military police soldiers in a counterattack after about 50 insurgents ambushed a supply convoy they were guarding near Salman Pak on March 20.
Read the whole thing. More detail here from her hometown press.
* New title, because it is my site and I can do stuff like that.