take your interval

The Supreme Court recently ruled that sex offenders can be held indefinitely beyond their sentences if officials deem them likely to repeat their offense.

Maybe I just need more context, but what’s the limitation here? Why can’t murderers be held indefinitely if ‘officials’ decide he/she may murder again? A marijuana user because they may get their bong out again (pot smoking is incredibly dangerous according to gov’t)? Why even bother with sentences? Why don’t we just let ‘officials’ decide how long inmates should be held. If we need to, we can consult China on how best to implement this new approach to habeas corpus.

I hate sex crimes as much as the next guy (assuming the next guy isn’t some kind of ‘deviated prevert’), but there has been a consistent pattern of using these heinous crimes as excuses to open the door to Constitutional abuses that can later be applied to everyone.

I guess now’s a good time to invest in private prisons. Business is gonna be booming.

An 'official' assesses the likelihood of repeat offense.

Popular Mechanics has an article about the shortage of snake and insect antivenin in the US.

Unfortunately, after Oct. 31 of this year, there may be no commercially available antivenom (antivenin) left. That’s the expiration date on existing vials of Micrurus fulvius, the only antivenom approved by the Food and Drug Administration for coral snake bites. Produced by Wyeth, now owned by Pfizer, the antivenom was approved for sale in 1967, in a time of less stringent regulation.

Wyeth kept up production of coral snake antivenom for almost 40 years. But given the rarity of coral snake bites, it was hardly a profit center, and the company shut down the factory that made the antivenom in 2003. Wyeth worked with the FDA to produce a five-year supply of the medicine to provide a stopgap while other options were pursued. After that period, the FDA extended the expiration date on existing stock from 2008 to 2009, and then again from 2009 to 2010. But as of press time, no new manufacturer has stepped forward.

This is how our system ‘works’. Drugs that are unnecessary or have deadly side effects can easily get approved, as long as the drug companies think there is a big enough market for them to justify paying for ‘approval’. That’s how you end up with anti-depressants that cause suicides and sleeping pills that cause unconscious people to drive their cars.

On the other hand, drugs that are absolutely necessary but have a niche market are dropped because pharmaceutical companies simply won’t bother spending the millions to billions of $ on testing and regulator ‘lobbying’ necessary to get it approved. It’s not that FDA testing is strict, effective or uncorruptible; it’s just expensive.

If we could only find a way to make getting bitten by deadly snakes and insects cool, we could create the demand needed to justify saving people’s lives.