Globalisation Hits Executions in the United States
Globalisation is often blamed for many of the world’s problems, but here’s an article that says that the same process is starting to hit executions in the United States.
The news has broken today that the sole US manufacturer of a key drug used in lethal injections will cease production because authorities in Italy, where the drug was to be made, wanted a guarantee that it wouldn’t be used to put inmates to death.
Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill, had decided to switch production of the anaesthetic sodium thiopental from its North Carolina plant to Liscate, outside of Milan. But the Italian Parliament wanted the company to control the product’s distribution to prevent it being used for executions. Hospira decided it couldn’t make that promise and has decided to suspend production — potentially throwing the death penalty system in the US into disarray.
But what’s missing from today’s reports is that behind the Italian Parliament’s insistence is a lay Catholic movement dedicated — among many other things – to the eradication of the death penalty around the world. The Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio had been engaged in discussions with Hospira’s Italian subsidiary, Hospira SL, which led to meetings with the Foreign Affairs minister, Franco Frattini, and the Ministry of Health. The result of those meetings was an agreement that the production of the drug in Italy would have to be for strictly therapeutic purposes. The company has long deplored its use in executions, and said it regretted the need to cease production.
Hospira’s choice to end production because it couldn’t give that guarantee was described as “highly responsible” by Sant’Egidio’s spokesman, Mario Marazziti, who said: “It highlights the point that therapeutic drugs and doctors should never be used to bring about death”.
Sidium thiopental is already in short supply after the British government last November also banned the UK manufacture of the drug following a campaign by the British NGO Reprieve. According to the Wall Street Journal’s law blog, Hospira’s decision means the death penalty system in the US “is potentially thrown into turmoil”. States can attempt to use another anaesthetic instead — Oklahoma, for example, has switched to a drug used to euthanise cats and dogs
— but it involves seeking clearance from the courts, which is likely to delay executions.
There is a lesson here about globalization. It’s not just the market that’s gone global. It’s civil society pressure, too.
I also applaud the work of the Catholic church here.
US Troops Turn to a Tricycle
The third leader of The Times today is unusual in that it tells the story of how the Pentagon has commissioned two command performances of The Great Game, by North London’s Tricycle Theatre. Here’s an extract.
The idea of staging The Tricycle Theatre’s production in Washington is so that generals, and soldiers heading to Afghanistan, might come away thinking what General Sir David Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff, thought after seeing the show in London; that “if I’d seen the plays before being deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in 2005 it would have made me a much better commander”.
Let’s hope we see more education of those who go to war, as we always tend to forget the lessons of history. I would also hope that they also read the thoughts of Aircraftsman Shaw.
I’d love to hear Sarah Palin’s thoughts on US forces being educated by Britain’s leading political playhouse.
Engineering Pornography
I needed a 17 mm. ratchet spanner to try to fix the stairs. They may be more expensive, but they are so easy to use if you have gammy hands. Or just one good one like me!
So I bought this double-ended one made by TengTools from Franchi in the Holloway Road.
A TengTools 17/19 mm. Ratchet Spanner
It looks, feels and works so good it’s almost pornographic.
Twenty years ago, this sort of hand-tool, might well have been made in the United States, but TengTools are a Swedish company. So perhaps the United States isn’t building on its traditional strengths to get itself sorted out.
Everybody Got it Wrong
The US Government report on the Deepwater Horizon disaster would appear to lay the blame thick and evenly.
But should we really be drilling offshore, when statistics show that on-shore drilling is so much safer?
The problem is also made worse in the United States because of their misguided energy policies and absolute adoration of the car.
02030265001
I used to get about three calls a day from this number on my old landline in Suffolk. It say’s I’ve won a cruise in the Caribbean or Florida or some other place I’m not keen on visiting. As it was an American voice, I usually just cut them off, if I didn’t spot the number before I picked up the phone.
I’m transferring the Suffolk number to my London house, so that I don’t have to change how people phone me. But in the meantime, I’ve got it diverted to my mobile and you guessed it, I got one on that today, after being diverted.
What is going to be fun, is when Virgin complete the transfer of the number, will they be able to stop these nuisance calls?
By the way don’t ever do anything with this number except cut it off immediately. Remember if they do it three times it’s harrassment! It would be rather good if someone actually tried to use the Harrassment Act against these idiots. But there are much better things to do, like slag off these people down the pub to warn everybody not to fall a victim. It might get you a free drink!
One interesting result of this scam might be, that it actually puts people off taking a cruise with one of the reputable American cruise companies. I hope one of them or their trade organisation has put the Feds on the case!
American Dream
This series on BBC 2 has been fascinating.
One particular interview was with a black American fighter pilot, who after being shot down over Germany was sent to Colditz.
Would You Like to be Rescued by a Chihuahua?
This seems to be a story that someone made up about a chihuahua being trained to be a police dog. But on reading it on the BBC, it appears that because of its size it can squeeze through small holes to find people trapped by earthquakes.
The only time I’ve seen small working dogs before, was in an airport in the United States, where the Beagle Brigade were sniffing passengers for illegal food imports.
James Blunt and His Part in Stopping World War 3
The story isn’t quite as dramatic as that, but it shows the different in attitude between US and UK forces, when it comes to dealing with a little local difficulty over Pristina airfield in Kosovo with the Russians.
In the end the view of General Mike Jackson prevailed over that of his commander, the US general, Wesley Clark. So Blunt and his troops, encircled the Russians and when the Russians food and water ran out, the Russians felt it prudent to co-operate and share the airfield.
But even so, Blunt admitted that he wouldn’t have fought the Russians, as he didn’t want to be the man who started World War 3, even if he had been court-martialed later.
The Anonymous Widower 