Monday, January 30, 2012

Tid Bits

USA Today Says Baylor Health Care Has Gone ‘Down a Dangerous Road’ With Tobacco Ban | FrontBurner

“Is that legal?” I ask him, only half-serious.
“We would not do anything that would be considered illegal,” he says, completely serious. “We’re in the healthcare business, so we want people to practice good health.”
When considering the cost smokers impose on the campus it could be more costly to enforce a ban.
Campus police have better things to do than wag their fingers at smokers, and hiring more officers to hand out tickets would likely exceed any savings.
As a practical matter, it won't stop people from smoking either. They might smoke at different places where butts get disposed, pile up and then blow away to litter the campus.
While it is always tempting to pretend that banning something will create a utopian effect, the unintended consequences can often be worse than the original problem.
We all have things we don't like, but sometimes we need to live and let live. When you start trying to ban anything you don't like, you give up liberty inch by inch. The next ban may be something you enjoy, something like polka dotted pink rain boots.
Transplant patients who develop head and neck cancer are more likely to be non-smokers and non-drinkers, and less likely than their non-transplant counterparts to survive past one year of diagnosis, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
As part of a 20-year review, Henry Ford researchers found cancers of the throat, tonsils and mouth may be more aggressive in transplant recipients as the result of long-term immunosuppressive therapy required to prevent solid organ rejection.
Transplant patients in the study who developed skin cancer in the head and neck region were more likely to have multiple lesions, compared to the general public. In all, 2.6% of transplant patients in the study developed some form of head and neck cancer.


Englin (D-Alexandria) has introduced a billthis legislative session that would create a group to figure out how much money the state could reap if it legalized marijuana and sold it in more than 300 Virginia liquor stores.
“All of the respectable people in our community who are secretly toking on the side are giving their money to criminals,’’ Englin said. “Over the years, a surprising number of constituents have said, ‘Hey, David, instead of raising taxes if we need more revenue, why don’t we legalize marijuana and sell it in the ABC?’ I figure. . . I would at least start the conversation.’’
Leblanc has been an activist that calls out government on what he thinks is wrong. His comments are colorful and in some cases kooky, but they never incite harm....Leblanc has frustrated a lot of people, but I believe in his sincere goal: he wants tomorrow's government to be better than today's, which according to his plan, should be better than yesterday's. Prior to this whole fiasco, he referred to the police as being fascist and operating like the KGB. It sounds crazy coming from him on his bright picket signs, but now it's less funny....Whether it was intended or not, the City of Fredericton is sending a message that nuisances will be silenced, and that people should think twice about taking on the state....I find this type of behavior to be morally reprehensible and a giant step back for political discourse in Fredericton. We're all fools if we don’t think the next journalist to call out the police isn’t going to be looking over their shoulder.