Bits & Bytes

• Do anything to win, say even more--At a College Democrats mass meeting, State Representative Mark Kruzan said that the Democratic party choosing to run conservative Democrat Peggy Welch against Republican Jeff Ellington "is, I hope, a good sign that we're open to different ideas." Sure, Mark, that's why you weren't interested in having a candidate at all in that race until Ellington narrowly defeated incumbent liberal Republican Jerry Bales in the primary.
• PETA's "Modest Proposal"?--People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals President Ingrid "Dahmer" Newkirk sugested in a PETA news release that since eating meat is a common practice, people should also eat other people. According to the release, at a "human barbecue," PETA members "will serve up samples of barbecued 'Cowboy Bob.'"
• You can't have it both ways--In an AP article, House minority leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo) commented on the possibility of impeachment, "You do not overturn the results of an American election on a whim." We seem to remember the same people complaining a month ago about this "whim" being in fact a process that had gone on much too long!
• National sovereignity on the altar of environmentalism--In a staff editorial on September 11, the IDS suggested "In a perfect world, an international organization...would exist to develop and enforce a set of worldwide ecological controls." (emphasis added) We don't even want to know their idea of a bad world!
• Is there anyone left who supports government-run health care?-- According to an AP report, the state of Maine attempted to take custody of a four year old boy away from his mother because the mother refused to put her son on a drug treatment for the HIV virus he is infected with, despite medical experts' testimony that the powerful drugs would kill the child faster than no treatment at all.
• Treating patients like pets?--In the September 16 IDS, Robert Scanlon writes a letter comparing euthanasia to putting "an aging, very ill, or very old pet to sleep." We hope Mr. Scanlon isn't pre-med; he seems to have mixed up veterinary school with medical school.