My only regret is that i was not able to get this out in a more timely fashion:

an open letter to Senator Brian Harradine of Australia

Not that i suppose that he really gives a hoot what some foreigner thinks of either him or his policies, but sometimes a Yank just has to speak hir mind about things...

Clue #432 that the United States is really an oligarchy:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/23/scotus.property.ap/index.html

Non Sequitor
U.S. Congress wants to make some changes to the provisions of the Patriot Act, and the resistance they're getting fascinates me.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Congress in April that the government has never used the provision to obtain library, bookstore, medical or gun sale records.

But when asked whether the administration would agree to exclude library and medical records from the law, Gonzales demurred. "It should not be held against us that we have exercised restraint," he said.

If Gonzales et al really think that it's a matter of holding something against them, then it's doubtful that they really understand the issue at all.

A college student in Japan has been sentenced for his role in a suicide pact between himself and two others which resulted in the death of one person.

It's official; nearly half of Americans (U.S.) are NUTS
Or at least that's what a survey in the June issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry implies.

Do you suppose that wholesome, All-American lifestyle has anything to do with it?

random musing
More often than not, i often hear of what goes on offline being referred to as "real life", with the implication that what happens online isn't real. I'm not entirely sure why. You'd think with that line of thinking that nobody really dies in a suicide pact made online, since, afterall, the pact was all part of some not-real fantasy zone.

And the Experts can't understand why they aren't more popular...
A mental hospital in California is being investigated after five teenagers escaped and one hung herself. Nevermind that neither the patients nor the staff there appear to have adequate protection against being assaulted, what is really interesting about this story is that it appears that quite a number of the inmates are being misdiagnosed and, naturally, given improper medications. Remember, the folks running this facility aren't laymen; they're supposedly trained professionals who know what they are doing.

Meanwhile, in the land of Oz...
For those of you who don't know, Australia is considering legislation that would make discussion of suicide methodology via the internet a crime. One of it's main proponents, Senator Brian Harradine, is quite vocal in his support of the proposed law, claiming:

the bill under consideration educate[s] society that there is value in the life of every human being, and that special care should be provided to those who are vulnerable for any number of reasons.

Given that adolescents who are identified as homosexuals have a higher rate of suicide than the general population of that age bracket, and given Harradine's record of persecuting homosexuals, i have to wonder how sincere he is about finding value in the life of every human; some of the ideas that can be logically inferred from the combination of his words and actions are, to say the least, disturbing.

What is particularly puzzling is this: if Harradine is convinced that the people of Australia should provide assistance to "vulnerable" people, then why waste money on the creation and enforcement of a law that does absolutely nothing to provide the type of support these people apparently need? This law makes no provisions for treating depression, though Harradine repeatedly points to depression as a causal factor of suicide, nor does it do anything else than criminalize people for what amounts to what Orwell would call a "thought crime". It will make mere possession of descriptions of means to suicide a crime even if the person possessing it has no intention of disseminating the information and even though suicide per se is not a crime in Australia.

I plan to write more on this topic later.

Suicide pact in Okinawa
body count: 3 method: hanging

A ban on ball-point pens would be the next logical step
Some doctors in Britain are calling for a ban of pointed kitchen knives. They are apparently the weapon of choice since guns are highly restricted over there. This goes to show that banning objects does not really change how people relate to one another.

A 24 year old in Japan has been arrested for trying to coordinate a suicide pact which would have involved himself and two 15 year olds.

It's almost funny
U.S. inmate Michael Ross on death row has waived all further appeals of his sentence and has been recently executed. Despite his having been found competent by the courts, attorney Polan and some others claim that his willingness to accept death indicates, in and of itself, that he was insane. Also, opponents of the death penalty predict that the execution will trigger a chain reaction in the area that will "break down" barriers against capital punishment. It's not clear to me how an inmate accepting his death sentence is going to encourage juries and courts to impose the death penalty on a more regular basis; supposedly those upright citizens are all sane and of sound morality, so if they find the sentence repugnant and only impose it as punishment for the most heinous of crimes, it's doubtful that the frequency of that sentence is going to increase unless, that is, more people commit such crimes. But it's incredulous to think that someone who is determined to die would choose this as a method; it's much less trouble to jump off a bridge or hang. And if someone was so twisted as to rape and kill other people with a view toward getting a free lethal injection for himself, perhaps the kindest thing a person could do for him and for society as a whole would be to grant his wish, preferably before he could do either of those things.

YASPIJ
body count: 5
The usual method was employed

YASPIJ
body count: 3
Interestingly, while the police decline to give a statement as to how these three people may have known each other, the news story very helpfully points out that a number of suicide pacts have been made over the web in that country. They also point out that news of groups suicides seems to spark copycat incidents.

So, should the journalists who wrote up this story be held responsible for the next group suicide?

Two separate suicide websites based in Taiwan have been shut down by the local police. Coincidentally both had also posted the complete contents of a suicide manual written by Tsurumi Wataru (whose name was mispelled in the article written in English that was edited by a person named Elmarie Jack). Since the owners of the sites are being charged with helping other folks suicide rather than with copyright infringement, we can be reasonably sure that the RIAA is not involved .

BTW, Tsurumi's book, "The Complete Manual of Suicide", is a bestseller in Japan.

It seems that most adults in the U.S. favor physician-assisted suicide.

ISPs in Japan are being pressured to provide information on individuals to the police on request when the police think that person is involved in a suicide pact. In the past, when the police have approached the ISPs about such things they have been asked to provide a search warrant before they'll be given the information, but since declaring one's intent to participate in a suicide pact isn't a crime, the search warrant can't be issued.

UK woman charged with manslaughter for not intervening on her husband's suicide.

A Canadian man is on trial for assisting the suicide of his wife.

Another group suicide in Japan, but this time it appears to be a woman and three children. Since only one of the people involved was an adult, i'd hesitate to call this a suicide pact.