Perry on the Death Penalty

Ok, I've decided to run for governor of Texas.

The current governor is named Rick Perry, so I've already got a lot of name recognition. And on this month's cover of Texas Monthly the headline was, "Perry for President!!???!!".

Needless to say, I wrote in to the editor and told them that slogan was already in use, that Perry (me) had already run for president and that the current governor had best not sully the Perry name. We'll just see how that goes.

I decided to tackle the issue of the death penalty here in Texas as the first subject in my platform. Texas is famous for its death penalty. In the words of comedian Ron White, "We have a death penalty and we use it." If you are convicted of a capital crime in Texas, guilty or not, retarded or not, your chanced of a commutation or a pardon are smaller than miniscule. As governor of Texas,George W. Bush presided over no less than 156 executions.  As of June 2009, Rick Perry has 200 under his belt.
Many in Texas feel the death penalty is being used unfairly, that it targets minorities. Statistics tend to support that claim.  If the death penalty is being used unfairly, charging minority criminals with capital crime for the same behavior as a majority criminal who is tried for a murder, not capital, then people who are making this claim are correct. In many states when this particular argument arises, a moratorium is put on executions until the facts are sorted out. In Texas executions continue until someone can prove otherwise. We like our death penalty.

However, in order to administer the ultimate punishment more fairly, I think humans should treat one another like they treat us. Criminals should go to the pound.
When dogs and cats are found roaming the streets, they are taken into custody by animal control. Once at the detention facility, their value to society is tested. If they have implanted identification devices, their caretakers are called to come pick them up. A fine is paid and the animal goes back home. If there is a collar and a license, the same process occurs. Should the animal's caretaker choose, he can leave the animal to the fate of the state.

Animals who have no identification are assessed for their socialization skills and put into a closed-ended adoption program. Once the adoption exposure period is up, the animals are executed. Those who have assaulted a human are put into observation cells. Then they are executed. And in many cities, Staffordshire Terriers and their mixed breed offspring are killed outright for their heritage alone. This system is very close to the human justice system in Texas.

What I propose is this: Institute a pound program to the Texas penal system. Everyone has to have a license. It will show where they live, who their doctor is and if their shots are up to date. These licenses will be worn around the neck. Should a human be caught without his license or exhibit bad behavior. he goes to the pound.

A human who commits an assault on another human (or animal. Hey, we have to protect ourselves) will be brought in for observation. If they prove to be incorrigible or have rabies, they will be destroyed in a vacuum chamber into which they will be placed and the air sucked out until they are dead. This is considered humane for animals and so should be humane for humans as well. (After all, the spelling is nearly identical)
Humans thought to be redeemable will be put into resocialization and then the adoption program. If adopted they will be licensed (for a fee) and the adopters will be responsible for getting all their shots up to date and either spaying or neutering them, whichever is appropriate.

With this system, the truly dangerous humans will be dealt with in a fair and humane manner. There is no appeal process. If you have bitten, you die. That is that. And humans who wish to remain in society can be returned.
Here licensing is the key. This process will be updated as vaccinations and other important information are acquired. Humans who turn on their fellows can be taken out of the population and dealt with in an efficient manner. Those who run rogue will be identified and taken to the pound for whatever retraining or adoption procedures are deemed necessary. And those who do not fit into the system at all, well they are dealt with as we are dealt with... humane destruction.

And so the problems inherent in capital punishment are solved. The pound system is already proven successful by the low rate of feral domestic animals in our country and the even lower occurence of rabies in our pets. Trained pets are happy pets. Spayed and neutered pets don't have those hormone induced behaviors like spraying and fighting and killing their offspring which get them in so much trouble. The system works.

So Texas, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, or rather, what's good for the cat is good for the man. It's time to mandate licensing humans and replace the justice system with the pound.

I think it will work. Don't you?

For more on Perry's Campaign go here.

Healthcare: The Big Scam

This is in answer to someone who said we didn't need a public option.  As I understand it, the public option only benefits the insurance companies.  Everyone, however, needs access to quality health care.  So:


Dear Sir,


I have a preexisting condition that even with generics costs about $6000 per year in medications. When we retire we will be paying both halves of our insurance or I will have to commit a crime or be institutionalized in order to keep my meds coming.


If we don't have medical coverage for everyone we will be paying in more taxes to pay for indigent care in government owned facilities, public health to protect the general population from communicable diseases, immunizations, disability, homelessness, welfare, state mental health care and prison for violent offenders who are not getting their psych meds. This doesn't even take into account children who are orphaned or virtually orphaned when their parents die or become permanently disabled from diseases that they cannot afford to treat because they have no health insurance.


We have a public health care system that is one of the finest in the world: The Veteran's Administration. This model can be used to create a health care system for the rest of the country. Why should we have to pay for loss of property values, public housing, welfare benefits and child support for people who, if treated, could continue to work and pay their mortgages instead of have to quit because they have a treatable cancer but no (or not enough) health insurance?


Why is it Americans think that providing health care to everyone is a bad thing?  Health is a public issue. Asthma is the disease that causes the most absenteeism in school children in the country and costs our education system millions.  The elderly live in fear of the whims of politicians changing their currently sub-standard care. And people without health care or medicare pay up to twice as much for treatments like coronary bypasses. Why should someone without insurance pay that much more than medicare patients?


The current health care system is designed to put people out on the street if they have a catastrophic illness. Therefore, only the rich can survive being extrememly ill or having a bad accident. Because if insurance companies continuously attempt to deny coverange... that is their knee jerk response. 


Perhaps it is a quiet form of genocide.


And why isn't the health care system run by doctors?  They know what's going on and what's needed. It is in other countries and is quite successful. So what if you have to wait six months for a hip replacement? After six months, you have your hip replacement. You don't get put off because of fighting with an insurance companyuntil it's too late.


There is no reason for insurance companies to be in charge of our health care. They are not the patients, they are not the doctors. They are just the people who have managed to put themselves in a place to collect money no matter what the medical outcome.


I've been in the public sector for thirty five years. All programs run toward entropy. We need reins on insurance companies. This is a good first step. Giving insurance companies more leeway (like interstate rights) will just make the system more susceptible to fraud and abuse. Deregulation is never good for the average citizen.  But it's "gud fer bidness".


What's my stake in this?  I'm a citizen.  I'm not retirement age, but with any luck I will be.  I'd like to live to be a healthy senior citizen, a condition which will require preventative medical care.  This is a plan which is in direct opposition to the financial interests of insurance companies.   I just hope someone sees the light soon.

Mom and the Flu

My mom's been sick. Not the "going to die from some disease" kind of sick, but still, pretty sick. I'm pretty sure she's had the flu. Now I don't know how she got the flu. She had both the regular flu shot and the H1N1 flu shot. And that was way back in December before Christmas.

It started, strangely enough, with her teeth. She went to the movies and had some popcorn. Then her mouth started to hurt, so she brushed and brushed and flossed and flossed but there was no popcorn in there. Still, it got all inflamed and hurt.

Then she had about a week where we were all about to get in trouble. Every day she got up and said she felt like someone had beaten the crap out of her while she was asleep. Of course since we cats slept on the bed, we were the prime suspects. But the damage was much too painful for it to have been us, even if all three of us had been beating her. Even with sticks! So mom decided that her recent work carrying stuff into her classroom might be the problem.

But then she started getting headaches and a sinus infection. Then a sore throat and a cough. And a fever. Now that was fine with Smokey. She only weighs two feathers and is always cold. Snuggling up around mom with a 102 temperature was fine with her. Of course it was a little inconvenient for her as mom was always talking in her sleep, rolling around, flipping the covers off and on. And always with that cough that sounded like her lungs were going to come flying out.

And she had major hair issues. Sometimes she took a shower then fell asleep before her hair was all dry. One day we dubbed her Hammer Head because of her hair issues. Smokey and I snickered behind our paws all that day. I'll include a picture.

Of course all of this all this happened during the worst blizzard we've had in a decade. Thursday the entire town of Mouskin was snowbound and Friday most everything was closed. By Sunday, mom was sick enough to think about going to the ER.

When she got there, there were so many people waiting in the "flu section" that she turned around and walked right back out again. Mom wasn't about to take a chance on bringing home the latest version of whatever was new at the local hospital. Hospitals are the best place to go if you want to get sick.

Monday mom was too sick to remember to call her doctor, but on Tuesday she finally got in there. The doctor decided she had the flu, (sur-PRISE!) and gave her some cough medicine and antibiotics. The cough medicine makes her really sleepy, so Smokey and I have been having a lot of fun dragging up little pieces of paper and little toys and cat food and other stuff and piling it on her face. Did you know she twitches?

So mom's feeling much better now and we're all happy about that. She hardly ever uses her cough medicine now, so I think she'll be doing ok by the time her whatever-cillin runs out. In the meantime, we're all taking good care of her, snuggling up and making sure she doesn't die in her sleep and stuff. (She doesn't like that part, but oh, well! Her health is more important to us than worrying about her getting mad about me sharpening my claws on her head at 4:00 in the morning, right?)