There Ought to be a law / Darwinism now, off topic

[Anthony Abdullah]

Ron, I had to laugh at your Darwin Awards comment. I have long been a fan of Darwinism as it applies to strengthening the gene pool. Your comment reminded me of a night about 6 years ago when I was working in the department of pharmacy services at University Hospitals of Cleveland. We get a call about 2:30am that an emergency vehicle is inbound with a man suffering from a potentially fatal rattlesnake bite. Apparently we were listed as the closest fascility able to treat him. I sprint down to the stock room to search for the seldom used freeze dried antivenom. I find the dusty container and head back to my sterile fume hood to reconstitute it. Unfortunately there wasn't a doctor or pharmacist in the place who knew the correct diluent or concentration so I am scrambling to read the faded insert for recommended dosage. Long story short, by the time he arrived I had delivered the correctly prepared medication to the emergency room for administration and the gentleman made a full
 recovery. I know that snake bites are relatively common in India, Australia, and Africa. I can also understand being bitten in Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas. But how in the world do you get bitten by a rattle snake in Cleveland Ohio, in January, in the dead of winter. The only logical answer is you have to be a prime candidate for natural selection to choose you for extinction. Everytime we tamper with that process we get a little weaker. As a result that man lived to reproduce and further dullify the intelligence of the human race.   

Ron Van Putte <vanputte at nuc.net> wrote:

John Ferrell wrote:
I would like to agree with you, but I remember the same cry about seat belts. Without legislation I would still be one of the quirky few to have them in my vehicles.  In the 1960's I was actively competing in Sports car rallies with Corvairs. I wanted to install a roll bar but the wording on the insurance policy would not allow it!
 
Without mandated inspections, our food supply and our water supplies would not be safe.
 
In fact, only careful security prevents some idiot from putting that gel cell and a can of fuel in the overhead storage on an airliner. Not only are people getting smarter, some are getting dumber!
 
If there is no specific law against it, some damned fool will do it!

I have no problem with laws which protect us from others.  The ones which bother me are the ones which protect us from ourselves, even though the consequences of bad judgement only affect us.  I agree that seat belt requirements which are for children are good.  People who don't like seat belts should be permitted to wipe themselves out, but children don't have a choice.  

The Darwin Award recipients are many and varied.  I continue to marvel at the incredibly stupid ways some bozos manage to kill themselves.  They should have the right (and even be encouraged) to do it.  The gene pool is improved.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.  

Ron Van Putte
 


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