Thought for Today

"Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable."

~~~~~ Franz Kafka

Thought for Today

"In any ethical situation, the thing you want least to do is probably the right action."

~~~~~ Jerry Pournelle

Thought for Today

"Life is for one generation; a good name is forever."

~~~~~ Japanese proverb

Mark Steyn on Teddy's Passing

As he has done so many times before, Mark Steyn says it best in his new NRO column, Airbrushing out Mary Jo Kopechne. Here's a pullquote:

He dared us to call his bluff, and, when we didn’t, he made all of us complicit in what he’d done. We are all prey to human frailty, but few of us get to inflict ours on an entire nation.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Mean, Cruel, and Heartless

8/26/2009 UPDATED AND BUMPED. He's finally gone to his reward – whatever it may be.

ABC News has put up an impartial account of the 1969 "incident" here: Chappaquiddick's Indiscretions Forever Tarnished.

Many are now in mourning for this moral cretin. Sorry, but I am not among them.

May God have mercy on his soul.

---

ORIGINAL POST 5/21/2008 8:40 PM

Amidst all of the shock and sadness, shouldn't someone have mentioned that all of the copious tears of sorrow over Edward Kennedy's brain cancer diagnosis are being shed for a murderer? Nobody else has, so I'll take on the thankless task.

I guess that makes me mean, cruel, and heartless.

Maybe I am, but on the other hand, I've never killed anybody, either.

Tell you what, though – before you decide, read this thorough, impartial account of the events of July 18, 1969, "Incident on Chappaquiddick Island," on History.com.

Sen. Edward Kennedy has already lived 39 years past the day when Mary Jo Kopechne drowned inside his car. Back in 1969, he used his family's wealth, power, and influence to escape any real punishment for his crime. Since then, he has used his position as a powerful senator to do incalculable damage to this country. The only real price that this shameless hypocrite ever paid was having to abandon his plans to run for the presidency. Perhaps it's ungracious of me to state that he's finally going to get what's been coming to him all these years, but I'm doing it anyway.

Lion of the Senate, my butt! If he had a shred of decency within him, he would have resigned from public life following the "Incident on Chappaquiddick Island." The fact that he did not speaks volumes about the man's character. The Senate, as well as the entire nation, will be much better off once he is no longer a member.

For his sake and the sake of his family, I only hope that his death, when it comes, will be swift and painless. Certainly, he will not have to suffer anything like the prolonged agony and horror that Mary Jo Kopechne must have suffered as she fought for her life inside his submerged Oldsmobile.

UPDATED: Finally, someone is telling the truth about the record of this despicable excuse for a man. Michael Savage has posted "The Real Kennedy Record" on his website, along with a short opinion piece, "The Real Ted Kennedy," by his show's producer, Beowulf Rochlen.

Read through the list of Kennedy's "accomplishments," then decide whether he is really deserving of this massive national outpouring of sympathy and sorrow.

My first instinct was correct. As a fellow human being, I'm sorry that Kennedy has been struck with an incurable and fatal brain cancer. But at the same time, as a patriotic American, I'm overjoyed that the U.S. Senate will soon have to pull itself together and learn how to function without him.

Thought for Today

"Compromise is never anything but an ignoble truce between the duty of a man and the terror of a coward."

~~~~~ Reginald Wright Kaufman

Letter to Citizens for Responsible Government

Here is a letter I just sent to Citizens for Responsible Government, a group with expertise on the right of recall.

Hi ---

Would you have any suggestions on how we can start the process of seeking the right of recall of statewide officers in Tennessee?

As of now, all we have is the right of referendum on measures originated by the legislature. There is no provision for either initiative or recall. The predictable result is that our governors (with 4-year terms) and U.S. Senators (with 6-year terms, of course) invariably run as freedom-loving, fiscally responsible conservatives, then proceed to do as they please once they are safely elected to office.

For example, earlier today, Senator Lamar Alexander announced his intention, in direct defiance of the wishes of the vast majority of his constituents, to vote in favor of the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In addition, I received a form letter from him last week in response to a contact I made with his office regarding the pending cap-and-trade legislation. In it, he made plain that despite mounting evidence to the contrary being reported by hundreds of qualified climatologists, he believes the Global Warmist pseudo-religious doctrine holding that "human activity is having a significant impact on global temperature increases" (his words). Thus, instead of opposing on principle the idea of passing any sort of legislation attempting to restrict our carbon dioxide output – and therefore our economy and our standard of living – he is merely quibbling over the timing and severity of the measures he is planning to vote in favor of imposing. (Thank goodness he has also – finally, after decades of unnecessary delay – come out in favor of constructing a large number of new, modern nuclear power plants. Here, though, he appears to be doing the right thing for the wrong reason: he likes nuclear plants not primarily because they provide huge amounts of safe, clean, economical electricity, but because they produce no carbon dioxide!)

Sen. Alexander was re-elected against token opposition in 2008. Therefore, he knows that his seat is safe until 2014. Undoubtedly, he thinks that his constituents are so stupid that by the time he runs for re-election, we will have forgotten all about his numerous votes in opposition to our interests. He probably plans to don his old plaid shirt and travel throughout our 95 counties once again masquerading as a reliably conservative man of the people.

Other than recall, a tool which is not available to us, I can think of no method we can use to exert any sort of influence upon faithless officials such as Sen Alexander. Phoning, writing, faxing, and emailing him seem to have no effect whatsoever other than the triggering of form reply letters such as the one I received last week. The Tennessee Legislature is most unlikely to originate any legislation granting us the right of recall. Can you suggest any means by which we might achieve it in spite of them?

Thank you in advance.
--
Regards,
Morton A. Goldberg, DVM
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Lebanon, TN 37087
(615) xxx-xxxx home
(615) xxx-xxxx cell
http://inoculate128.blogspot.com/

Crazy? Foolish? Futile?

Maybe all of the above, but we have nearly lost control of our country, and we have to start somewhere to take it back.

7/31/09 12:25 AM UPDATE: That was quick! I received a very thorough reply from Chris Kliesmet of CRG within 38 minutes. It turns out that he will be in my area this weekend, and has offered to meet with us. More later.

Thought for Today

"Capitalism and communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The communist, seeing the rich man and his fine home, says: "No man should have so much." The capitalist, seeing the same thing, says: 'All men should have as much.'"

~~~~~ Phelps Adams

Jeffrey Lord on Sotomayor – A Real Eye-Opener

Yesterday's American Spectator includes a major article by Jeffrey Lord, Two Presidents and the Court: When Bigotry Takes the Bench. In it, Lord masterfully illustrates the disturbing parallels between the race-obsessed Supreme Court Justice James McReynolds and the race-obsessed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. His conclusion: both are equally incompatible with our supposedly impartial legal system.

Here's how the article begins:

In a surely unintended bit of symbolism, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, accused of racism, has been named to the Supreme Court seat once held by one of the Court's most fervid racists: Woodrow Wilson appointee James McReynolds.

McReynolds' vividly racist 27-year tenure from 1914 to 1941, obscured by time, has resurfaced in a fashion that can only be less than helpful to Team Obama as Sotomayor's nomination faces Senate confirmation. Why? It forces everyone to focus on two very real questions as this nomination moves forward this week.

First: What does the Sotomayor nomination say about Obama? And second: will Sotomayor deliver what the President expects of her if seated on the Court?

Here's the McReynolds story.

The place: The United States Supreme Court.

The occasion: oral arguments in what would turn out to be the first crack in a famous Supreme Court precedent.

Arrayed behind the raised bench, the nine Justices peer down from their lofty, high-backed leather chairs, their black robes distinct against crimson drapes trimmed with gold.

Rising to his feet to begin his presentation is attorney Charles Hamilton Houston. Houston is one of America's more brilliant members of the bar. Educated at Amherst College, where he was the class valedictorian, he had gone on to graduate cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served on the law review. Today, the historic courtroom is hushed, with all eyes on Houston as he begins to speak.

Suddenly, silently, without a word, there is movement from the bench.

Justice James Clark McReynolds swivels his chair, turning it around 180 degrees. And keeps it that way. There is a moment of stunned silence as the recognition dawns on McReynolds's fellow Justices, headed by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. So too is there a jaw-dropping understanding in the rest of the ornate, historic chambers as everyone else realizes the import of what has just occurred. The Justice is now staring steadily at the curtains, the back of his tall chair quite deliberately, ostentatiously, and literally turned to Houston.

There was a reason.

Are you curious to know why the honorable Justice McReynolds acted in such a thoroughly reprehensible manner? Then click here to find out. Hint: Sotomayor's words, publicly uttered on at least three occasions, "My experiences will affect the facts that I choose to see as a judge," could just as well have been spoken by McReynolds.

This one's a must-read.

Thought for Today

"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."

~~~~~ H.L. Mencken

The Old Jarhead: I'm Tired

I'm Tired is a truly great blog post written 4 months ago by Marine Vietnam veteran Robert A. Hall. It has spread virally all over the internet, and finally made it into my mailbox a little while ago. If you haven't read it yet, you need to. Here's how it begins:

I’ll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth around” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the leftwing Congresscritters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them—with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by leftwing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women’s rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won’t multiculturalism be beautiful?

You can read the rest of it, along with the many comments it has attracted, here.

Thought for Today

"One of the most important talents for success in politics is the ability to make utter nonsense sound not only plausible but inspiring. Barack Obama has that talent. We will be lucky if we escape the catastrophes into which other countries have been led by leaders with that same charismatic talent."

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Hat tip: WorldNetDaily.com

Mark Steyn: Live Free or Die

This month's Imprimis from Hillsdale College features an essay adapted from a March, 2009 lecture by the indispensable Mark Steyn. For the title of his lecture, Mark used the famous motto of his adopted home state, "Live Free or Die."

Reading his lecture is a very sobering experience. As a native of Canada who has traveled widely all over the world, Mark has a greater appreciation of United States exceptionalism than most native-born Americans. He has seen first-hand the rapid decline of the once-great civilizations of Great Britain, France, Germany, and even, to a disturbing extent, Canada.

For several years now, Mark has been trying his considerable best to warn us that we, the last bastion of true freedom in the world, are headed down the exact same path as the formerly great powers of Europe. He sees us heading at breakneck speed for a cliff, and is attempting to warn us to change course before it is too late.

In his vitally important book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark discusses the disturbing demographic trends which, if unchecked, will leave us friendless and isolated in a hostile world. In this lecture, he points out that our new administration is trying its best to drive us over the same cliff over which our European and Canadian friends have already fallen.

Here's how he begins:

MY REMARKS are titled tonight after the words of General Stark, New Hampshire's great hero of the Revolutionary War: "Live free or die!" When I first moved to New Hampshire, where this appears on our license plates, I assumed General Stark had said it before some battle or other—a bit of red meat to rally the boys for the charge; a touch of the old Henry V-at-Agincourt routine. But I soon discovered that the general had made his famous statement decades after the war, in a letter regretting that he would be unable to attend a dinner. And in a curious way I found that even more impressive. In extreme circumstances, many people can rouse themselves to rediscover the primal impulses: The brave men on Flight 93 did. They took off on what they thought was a routine business trip, and, when they realized it wasn't, they went into General Stark mode and cried "Let's roll!" But it's harder to maintain the "Live free or die!" spirit when you're facing not an immediate crisis but just a slow, remorseless, incremental, unceasing ratchet effect. "Live free or die!" sounds like a battle cry: We'll win this thing or die trying, die an honorable death. But in fact it's something far less dramatic: It's a bald statement of the reality of our lives in the prosperous West. You can live as free men, but, if you choose not to, your society will die.

My book America Alone is often assumed to be about radical Islam, firebreathing imams, the excitable young men jumping up and down in the street doing the old "Death to the Great Satan" dance. It's not. It's about us. It's about a possibly terminal manifestation of an old civilizational temptation: Indolence, as Machiavelli understood, is the greatest enemy of a republic. When I ran into trouble with the so-called "human rights" commissions up in Canada, it seemed bizarre to find the progressive left making common cause with radical Islam. One half of the alliance profess to be pro-gay, pro-feminist secularists; the other half are homophobic, misogynist theocrats. Even as the cheap bus 'n' truck road-tour version of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, it made no sense. But in fact what they have in common overrides their superficially more obvious incompatibilities: Both the secular Big Government progressives and political Islam recoil from the concept of the citizen, of the free individual entrusted to operate within his own societal space, assume his responsibilities, and exploit his potential.

To read the rest, go here. You can also download the entire issue as a PDF here.

Don Feder: An American Credo

Don Feder has written an outstanding Memorial Day column, An American Credo. Here's how it begins:

On the day when we memorialize those who gave their lives so America would endure, we should ask what it means to be a citizen of this republic. Here are the thoughts of one American, a credo for the coming millennia.

I am an American. I was conceived at Plymouth, born in Lexington and Concord, and reached maturity at Philadelphia.

I went through the fires of Shiloh, Gualdacanal, the Chosin Resovoir, Khe Sanh and a thousand other battlefields, and emerged rededicated to the ideals on which America was founded.

I am an American. Ever ready to defend my liberty and independence, to make any sacrifice and bear any burden – still, I seek no quarrel.

To read the rest of this stirring tribute to American exceptionalism, click here.

Hat tip: Jewish World Review

The First 100 Days

Hat tip: Michael Ramirez and Townhall.com

Good Advice for Patients – and Their Doctors

Dr. Alex Lickerman, the proprietor of Happiness in this World, just put up a thoughtful, masterfully written post, When Doctors Don’t Know What’s Wrong. While it's primarily directed toward patients, I'd encourage all physicians and veterinarians to read it, too. Here's the beginning:

The first patient I ever saw as a first year resident came in with a litany of complaints, not one of which I remember today except for one: he had headaches. The reason I remember he had headaches isn’t because I spent so much time discussing them but rather the exact opposite: at the time I knew next to nothing about headaches and somehow managed to end the visit without ever addressing his at all, even though they were the primary reason he’d come to see me.

Then I rotated on a neurology service and actually learned quite a lot about headaches. Then when my patient came back to see me a few months later, I distinctly remember at that point not only being interested in his headaches but actually being excited to discuss them.

I often find myself thinking back to that experience when I’m confronted with a patient who has a complaint I can’t figure out, and I thought it would be useful to describe the various reactions doctors have in general to patients when they can’t figure out what’s wrong, why they have them, and what you can do as a patient to improve your chances in such situations of getting good care.

Not only should you read all of it, you should share it with as many people as you can – especially your doctor and your veterinarian.

Equine Massacre

The Palm Beach Post reports a shocking incident in Wellington, Florida under the overly cautious headline 14 polo horses reportedly die in Wellington before polo match. Is there any doubt whatsoever that 14 horses mysteriously became ill and died within a very short time of each other? Is there any chance that some of the horses didn't really die, but are just playing dead? Is there even some slight chance that some of these horses may be miraculously resurrected? Apparently not:

WELLINGTON — At least 14 horses died Sunday after collapsing before a polo match. Vets hooked up intravenous tubes to the sick horses and fought to help them breathe as the horses from the Lechuza Caracas team were stricken by an unknown illness, officials said.

"Some died right away. Others lasted about 45 minutes," said veterinarian Scott Swerdlin, a member of the Palm Beach Equine Clinic who was at the scene and said 14 horses died.

A bit farther down, we are told:

The horses began breathing heavily and stumbling at the Lechuza equestrian facility before they were brought to the polo club, Swerdlin said he was told.

Necropsies and blood tests will be done on the dead horses at a state-run clinic in Kissimmee. The carcasses were taken intact to the facility Sunday afternoon. Results could come as early as today.

Swerdlin wouldn't speculate on what happened to the horses. "I don't guess," he said. "I wait for evidence."

So it does appear that 14 horses were involved, and that they are indeed deceased beyond any reasonable doubt, since their "carcasses" (couldn't they have said "bodies" or "remains"?) were taken to a state laboratory for necropsy. So why, then, did the brave Palm Beach Post not come right out and tell us that in the headline? Why did it feel obligated to use the adverb "reportedly" to modify the word "died"?

So what happened? What might have caused these 14 apparently healthy polo ponies to sicken and die within 45 minutes or less? We have to read all the way down to the 10th paragraph to learn what the reporters "reportedly" found out – which then turns out to be a rehash of what some other reporters reportedly found out:

According to several sources, the horses had a reaction to a steroid derivative that may have been tainted with a cleaning solution, the Sun Sentinel reported. The shots apparently were administered by an Argentine vet not licensed in the U.S., it further reported.

At least three more horses were affected.

One 10-year-old mare was gravely ill late Sunday afternoon. She was lying in a stall under the care of the medical staff at the Lechuza facility.

"They started getting dizzy," [polo club spokesman] O'Connor said of the scene at the polo club. "They dropped down right onto the grass."

The truth, then, is not that these unfortunate horses "reportedly" died, but that they most definitely died after "reportedly" having been accidentally poisoned in a doping attempt involving an unlicensed veterinarian.

If true, this allegation reflects very poorly upon the polo club and both the Federal and Florida state regulatory agencies which are charged with enforcing our animal protection laws. For many decades, incidents such as these were routine at horse racing tracks in third-world countries, but were almost unheard of in the United States and other first-world countries. Now, it appears that an individual who may or may not be licensed to practice veterinary medicine in Argentina, but was practicing illegally here, somehow managed to bring in enough of some illegal substance to kill at least 14 horses, then administer it to them by injection without being detected.

If this episode turns out to have unfolded approximately as related in the Palm Beach Post story, its significance cannot be overstated. It would represent a major failure in the regulatory systems upon which we rely to keep everyone honest, and would constitute further evidence, if any were needed, of our degeneration into a banana republic.

The importance of definitively ascertaining not only the precise cause of the horses' death, but the exact circumstances and, above all, the identities of those responsible, cannot be overstated. Regardless of who was involved, all of the people responsible for this outrage must be exposed, tried, convicted, and punished as severely as the law will allow. In addition, we must insist that our regulatory agencies use the authority they have been granted to enforce the laws which are supposed to prevent this sort of flagrant abuse.

Stay tuned.

4/20/09 10:34 AM UPDATE: According to the AP, 7 more horses have now died, for a total of 21. This story doesn't mention the allegation that an unlicensed Argentinian veterinarian had given the affected horses some type of steroid injections just before they fell ill, but does include this additional information:

A veterinarian who was at the scene said the tests will need to determine the trigger for what he believed was heart failure among the horses.

"Well clearly, it's an intoxication, clearly there's some sort of a poison," Dr. James Belden told NBC.

Belden said it remains to be seen "whether it's something in the environment or something that the horses were exposed to." He said the routine in the horses' stable ahead of the match was absolutely normal.

4/20/09 12:56 PM UPDATE: The Palm Beach Post has an updated story: Polo veterinarian: Tainted meds, performance drugs unlikely the culprit to 21 polo horses' deaths. Here's a snippet:

The horses, all from the same team, died one by one, "almost certainly of an intoxication of some sort that they consumed," said Lechuza Caracas team veterinarian James Belden, a local vet who was among those pumping intravenous fluids into the horses, trying to save them. Belden doesn't travel with the team but thought it unlikely that the horses would be given anabolic steroids because the team competes in England, where such drugs are prohibited.

"Almost certainly they don't use anabolic steroids," Belden said.

He also said tainted medication - a concern raised late Sunday - was not a likely culprit because the horses are cared for diligently.

"I've been in practice 50 years," Belden said. "I've never seen anything like this."

There's also another story with some intriguing information about the horses' owner, Venezuelan multi-millionaire Victor Vargas, Wicked-rich owner of dead ponies has local ties:

The man has literally vanished since some of his horses laid down and died on the turf. One source at the United States Polo Association told me Vargas hopped on one of his three private jets Sunday afternoon and flew overseas.

Vargas, who also has oil interests, owns homes in the Dominican Republic and his native Venezuela, where he is considered close to President Hugo Chavez.

Looks as though there are a few rocks out there that need turning over to expose all the slugs hiding underneath. Let's hope that between them, the Feds and the Florida state authorities can come up with the cojones to do the job.

4/20/09 1:24 PM UPDATE: The Orlando Sentinel has another relevant story, Kissimmee vet will try to determine what killed polo horses:

KISSIMMEE - Terry McElroy, a spokesman with the Florida Department of Agriculture, Division of Animal Industry, confirmed the number of dead horses as at least 21. Of those, 10 to 15 have been sent to the division's main laboratory in Kissimmee. The others might be sent to a similar facility at the University of Florida in Gainesville, McElroy said.

"Animals died en masse and we need to know why," McElroy said. "The Kissimmee facility is the leading lab in the state, and one of the top ones in the nation for this type of investigation. That's why they went there."

McElroy said the entire necropsy process might take up to a week. It is very much like an autopsy: the body is dissected and fluid and tissue samples are collected.

"It might take the better part of the week or even longer because of toxicology reports," McElroy said.

4/20/09 4:42 PM UPDATE: And now the law is involved: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office now investigating death of horses in Wellington.

In the meantime, the Florida Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Polo Association have launched investigations into the deaths, as has the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department.

"As we find out more, we'll talk to more people, but right now we don't anticipate this being anything other than these animals accidentally ingested something or were accidentally poisoned," said Capt. Greg Richter, the commander of the Wellington district.

Wouldn't it be better if Capt. Richter, like Dr. Swerdlin, waited for the evidence to come in before jumping to the conclusion that this was all a terrible accident?

4/20/09 6:36 PM UPDATE: Sissy Willis was kind enough to draw my attention to this new article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, PBSO and state investigations launched in deaths of 21 horses in Wellington. The most significant bit of information I got from it is contained in the accompanying video. In it, a veterinarian correctly points out that the clinical signs exhibited by the horses which died are completely consistent with monensin poisoning.

Monensin, sold by the Elanco division of Eli Lilly and Company under the trade name Rumensin, is a special-purpose antibiotic used in ruminants and poultry as a feed efficiency improver and coccidiostat. It has long been known to be deadly poisonous to horses, and should never be mixed into any feed to which they might have access. While anything is possible, in my opinion, it would be highly unlikely that anyone would be so careless as to accidentally feed monensin-containing feed to high-value horses such as these. If monensin should turn out to be the causative agent of these horses' deaths, I would hope that the law enforcement personnel working on the case will thoroughly investigate the possibility that it was mixed into the horses' feed deliberately.

Another consideration is the matter of exposure. Generally, all of the horses in a barn are fed the same feed, with only the quantity being tailored to the individual horse. Therefore, if monensin had been introduced into the feed, normally all of the horses which consumed it would have been affected.

At this time, it is vitally important for everyone involved to keep an open mind and avoid jumping to conclusions which may turn out to be wrong. While we all want to know exactly what happened and who was to blame, we need to be patient and give the veterinary pathologists time to perform their detailed and painstaking examinations.

The time for recriminations is not yet at hand.

4/21/09 2:14 PM UPDATE: Here's the latest – first from the Sun-Sentinel:
State officials hope to finish examinations of dead horses by tomorrow

WELLINGTON - State officials today said they hope to finish necropsies on all 21 polo horses that died in Wellington by tomorrow. But so far, the deaths remain a mystery.

Terance McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the physical examinations should be finished by Wednesday morning at the latest.

"But then we will begin toxicology tests," McElroy said.

As for the examinations that have taken place, McElroy said: "No conclusions [have been] drawn so far."

The state and Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office opened parallel investigations into the horses' deaths and are waiting for blood and tissue test results along with an analysis of everything the horses came in contact with that could have been toxic.

"There is no indication at this time of any criminality, any criminal intent, foul play," Sheriff's Office Capt. Greg Richter said today. "There's every indication these horses ingested or were injected with something that caused them to pass away."

The bodies of the horses arrived Monday at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville and a state laboratory in Kissimmee so scientists could examine them for answers. State officials quickly ruled out infectious diseases.

"Because of the very rapid onset of sickness and death, state officials suspect these deaths were a result of an adverse drug reaction or toxicity," McElroy said Monday, in a written statement.

Dr. John Harvey, assistant dean of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, said a necropsy is much like an autopsy: The body is checked for visible trauma, and fluid and tissue samples are collected after a preparation process that takes two to three days.

"The suspicion here is toxins because of how sudden these animals died," Harvey said. "But since we don't know what we're looking for, there are literally thousands of things we can test for. It could be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

The Palm Beach Post has this:
UF animal pathologists will examine remains of all 15 polo ponies taken there

GAINESVILLE — A team of University Florida animal pathologists and technicians is working as quickly as possible to determine the exact cause of death for the 21 polo ponies from Wellington.

At UF's College of Veterinary Medicine, four pathologists and three technicians are examining blood and tissue samples from the remains of the 15 horses they received Monday.

"As soon as the horses got here, we started processing them," Sarah Carey, spokeswoman for the college of veterinary medicine, said today. "But it's not like we have a huge, huge facility. This is a stress for us as well."

Preliminary results could be available by the end of this week, said Dr. John Harvey, executive associate dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Initially, pathologists were going to examine only the eight horses that were insured. But Carey said that the UF school was asked to test all 15 horses - "possibly because of the sensitive nature of this case, and the fact that it is under investigation," she added.

As of this morning, necropsies had been performed on the eight insured horses, with the seven others scheduled next.

The bodies of the other six horses from the Lechuza Caracas team are being examined at the Florida Animal Diagnostic Lab in Kissimmee. Agriculture Department spokesman Mark Fagan said the two sites are communicating regularly on the exams.

"We are trying to expedite this (process) to get something conclusive as quickly as possible," Fagan said from Kissimmee. "It's hard to say it's going to be a week, or two weeks, but it's going to be done as quickly as we can."

Arrival at a definitive diagnosis may well depend upon the completion of the toxicology tests. If so, this may take a while.

4/22/09 5:58 PM UPDATE: Here's the latest from the Palm Beach Post:
State investigators: Dead Wellington polo horses had hemorrhaging lungs:

With the necropsies on the 21 horses that died in Wellington on Sunday nearly complete, the Florida Department of Agriculture confirmed today that the horses suffered from hemorrhaging of the lungs.

"The thing that is consistent with all the horses is hemorrhaging and pulmonary edema," said Mark Fagan, spokesman for the agricultural department. "That's consistent through all the necropsies so far, and we certainly expect that with the remaining few necropsies."

Fagan said that an official cause of death wouldn't be released until the toxicology reports are completed - those results aren't expected until the end of the week, at the earliest.

Fagan said that investigators are following a report in the La Nacion newspaper of Buenos Aires where a captain of the Lechuza Caracas polo team said the horses were injected with a vitamin supplement called Biodyl that is not approved for use in the United States, Fagan said.

Pulmonary edema and pulmonary hemorrhage in all 21 horses – sure sounds like it'll turn out to be some sort of a mass poisoning. Now, they'll determine what substance or mixture of substances was involved. Once that's been established, it will be a matter of good old-fashioned detective work to ascertain with legal certainty how it got into the horses, and who was responsible.

I'd be extremely surprised if the death of all these horses turns out to have a natural cause. It's a virtual certainty that one or more humans was involved. The investigators will have to figure out who did this, then whether it was some sort of terrible accident – or intentional and malicious.

Let's be patient while the veterinary pathologists complete their necropsies and forensic analyses. It sh ouldn't be too much longer.

4/23/09 2:53 AM UPDATE: The Palm Beach Post is now reporting FDA: Supplement, allegedly injected into Wellington polo horses that died, illegal in U.S..

The 21 polo ponies that died in Wellington were all injected before Sunday's match with a government-banned vitamin supplement designed to fight off exhaustion, and polo team members believe a tainted dose caused their deaths, the team's captain said.

Juan Martin Nero, captain of the Lechuza Caracas polo team, told the Argentine newspaper La Nación that all of the horses received injections of Biodyl before getting sick and dying.

"We don't have any doubts about the origin of the problem," Nero said. "There were five horses that weren't given the vitamin and they are the only ones that are fine."

Biodyl, a French-made supplement, is banned by the federal Food and Drug Administration, and its sale or use in the United States is generally illegal, an FDA spokeswoman said.

But veterinarians say the supplement is usually harmless and would have been unlikely to kill the horses unless it had been somehow contaminated.

This information is interesting, but leaves us no closer to a definitive answer. Despite the polo team captain's certainty, investigators are going to rely upon the results of laboratory tests to reach their conclusions.

4/23/09 3:21 PM UPDATE: According to the Palm Beach Post, Pharmacy admits it incorrectly mixed supplement linked to deaths of 21 Wellington polo ponies.

WELLINGTON — The head of an Ocala-based pharmacy today admitted that it incorrectly mixed a medication that was given to 21 horses that mysteriously collapsed and died last weekend.

Jennifer Beckett, chief operations officer for Franck's Pharmacy, said an internal investigation revealed that the strength of an ingredient in the medication was flawed. In a written statement, she did not name the medication or the ingredient involved.

"We will cooperate fully with the authorities as they continue their investigations," she wrote. "Because of the ongoing investigations, we cannot discuss further details about this matter at this time."

The news came as the politically-connected Venezuelan multi-millionaire who owns the 21 horses indicated that he suspects his team's own veterinarian may have played a role in the deaths of some of the polo ponies, according to a letter from a Philadelphia lawyer.

In a letter to polo team veterinarian Dr. James Belden, an attorney representing an insurance company says its investigation revealed that a generic compounded version of Biodyl was administered to 12 ponies prior to their deaths before a match at the International Polo Club Palm Beach on Sunday. It is unclear why the letter references only 12; 21 horses are believed to have received the supplement.

Attorney William Gericke wrote that Belden ordered the compound from Franck's Pharmacy in Tallahassee.

The Sun-Sentinel has a similar report including a few more details, Ocala pharmacy says it incorrectly prepared medication for 21 polo horses that died:

WELLINGTON - University scientists think they have identified the chemical that likely killed 21 polo horses in Wellington, but are withholding the information until it can be reviewed by the state.

"We believe the likely chemical responsible has been tentatively identified, but pending review by the state veterinarian and state law enforcement, we cannot comment any further at this time," said Sarah Carey, spokeswoman for the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville.

She did not know when the results would be released.

That accompanies news today that an Ocala pharmacy has taken responsibility for botching a vitamin compound given to the horses just hours before they died.

If a compounding pharmacy's mixing error is indeed the proximate cause of what happened, the lawyers are going to have a field day.

Veterinarians commonly use various drugs for "off-label" purposes. This practice is necessary because it's economically unfeasible for pharmaceutical manufacturers to pay for all of the testing which would be necessary in order to get each drug approved by the FDA for every conceivable purpose. Therefore, we are permitted to use any licensed drug we can legally obtain for any legitimate medical purpose on non-food-producing animals.

When we use drugs for off-label purposes, we don't have the legal cover of a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company backing us up. Quite the contrary, in fact – when we do this, we are on our own; we assume full responsibility for the consequences of our actions. Therefore, it's wise to:

• be absolutely certain that according to our best medical knowledge, we are using an appropriate drug at the correct dosage;
• take every precaution to avoid known drug incompatibilities;
• use our best judgment to decide whether to do it ourselves or entrust the compounding job to a trusted licensed pharmacist experienced in dealing with veterinary prescriptions;
• make sure that the client is fully informed at every step of the way, specifically informed about the risks involved in using an off-label drug upon his animal – and that he signs a release form to that effect

It will be interesting to find out whether the veterinarian responsible for ordering the compounded mixture from the pharmacy had explained the risks to the owner of the horses and gotten him to sign a release. If not – he'd better have some super heavy duty malpractice insurance, because the chances are pretty good that he'll be needing it.

In this case, the pharmacy has already admitted fault, so assuming that the laboratory test results confirm that their compound caused the deaths of the horses, they will have to share in the liability. As the saying goes, IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer), but it was always my understanding that whenever I was using off-label drugs, anything that might have gone wrong was upon my head; the buck stopped with me. In this case, the team veterinarian allegedly prescribed the mixture, ordered it to be compounded by Franck's Pharmacy, and either administered it personally or supervised its administration. So it's unlikely that he'll be able to transfer the entire responsibility for the deaths of the 21 horses to the compounding pharmacist.

At least, thankfully, it is beginning to appear as though the deaths of these horses were not caused by a deliberate act.

4/24/09 2:51 PM UPDATE: Both the Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel have some new information today.

From the Palm Beach Post comes High selenium in supplement mix could be to blame in death of 21 Wellington polo ponies

WELLINGTON- — Did too much selenium kill 21 polo ponies on Sunday?

As the polo world waits for test results to be released by state investigators, speculation has focused sharply on the naturally occurring chemical element.

Before dying Sunday and early Monday, the Lechuza Caracas team's horses were injected with a generic lab-made version of a banned French vitamin supplement that contained sodium selenite, a selenium-based salt.

Citing anonymous sources, the Argentine newspaper La Nacion reported today that the horses' lab-made supplements included 5 milligrams per milliliter of sodium selenite instead of the prescribed 0.5 milligrams.

Then there's this from the Sun-Sentinel: Ocala pharmacy says it incorrectly prepared medication for 21 polo horses that died

WELLINGTON - Five days after 21 polo horses mysteriously died in Wellington, university scientists Thursday singled out a chemical they think killed the ponies.

They just weren't ready to reveal it quite yet.

Still, clues have come together as an Ocala-based pharmacy acknowledged it incorrectly mixed a vitamin compound given to the horses just hours before they died -- a compound the Lechuza Caracas polo team says an unidentified Florida veterinarian requested.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the compound is of questionable legality and attorneys say there could be costly consequences for its use.

Citing anonymous sources, La Nacion newspaper of Argentina, reported today that the formula given to the horses contained ten times the correct amount of selenium. The newspaper reported that 0.5 mg/ml was prescribed but the compound actually contained 5 mg/ml.

Conceding that definitive conclusions are still a bit premature, it is nevertheless becoming more apparent that these horses died because of a pharmacists's medication mixup. It looks as though the person who mixed the ingredients made a decimal error resulting in a formulation containing 10 times the prescribed dose of selenium.

This type of error is unfortunately all too common in both human and veterinary medicine. For example, in a widely publicized incident, actor Dennis Quaid's twin babies were inadvertently given a huge overdose of the anti-clotting medicine heparin – in Cedars-Sinai, one of the most respected hospitals in the country. Even at the finest institutions, human carelessness can still occur. People in a hurry don't always stop to read a label, but far too often grab a vial from a certain spot on the shelf, quickly noting the color and, perhaps, the drug name on the label, but not the concentration of the active ingredient. Thus, an infant can accidentally receive an adult dose of heparin one thousand times greater than the correct dose ordered by the neonatologist.

Similarly, a pharmacist in a hurry can slip a decimal point when calculating the quantity of sodium selenite to add to a medication he is compounding in order to fill a veterinarian's prescription. If neither he nor a second person catches the error, 21 horses can die agonizing deaths as a result.

Selenium is pretty unforgiving stuff. It's a trace mineral which is essential in minute amounts in the diets of both humans and animals. Yet, in somewhat larger amounts, it becomes a deadly poison. That in itself is not unusual – many elements, such as zinc and copper, are essential in tiny doses but toxic in large amounts. The unique thing about selenium, though, is that the difference between the essential amount and the toxic amount (expressed mathematically as the therapeutic index) is very small.

Then the case would seem to be pretty cut-and-dried, no? The pharmacist made a careless mistake causing the deaths of 21 beautiful horses; therefore he's responsible. But it's not quite that simple. In this case, the pharmacist was filling a veterinarian's prescription which might well not have been legal – which, at the very least, falls into that "gray area" mentioned in the news accounts.

Prescription compounding can be an invaluable tool. It can be useful to provide an otherwise unavailable medication for a specific patient with a problem which cannot be adequately managed with the licensed drugs already on the market. It is also very handy when the commercially available dosage forms are unusable or impractical for administration to an animal. However, it appears that in this case, compounding was being used to get around the law by formulating a medication which is not licensed for use in the United States. Furthermore, it was not for the purpose of treating any medical condition, but instead for the far more nebulous purpose of injecting healthy performance horses, analogous to human professional athletes, with a vitamin/electrolyte mixture.

In this case, it would seem that the apportionment of blame between the prescribing veterinarian and the compounding pharmacist will be a task calling for the wisdom of Solomon.

Scientific Standards

"By the worldly standards of public life, all scholars in their work are of course oddly virtuous. They do not make wild claims, they do not cheat,they do not try to persuade at any cost, they appeal neither to prejudice nor to authority, they are often frank about their ignorance, their disputes are fairly decorous, they do not confuse what is being argued with race, politics, sex or age, they listen patiently to the young and to the old who both know everything. These are the general virtues of scholarship, and they are peculiarly the virtues of science."

~~~~~ Jacob Bronowski

It has become all too apparent that some scientists no longer
conform to the late Dr. Bronowski's exemplary standards.
More's the pity.

Note to NASA: Fire Dr. James Hansen, now.

Hat tip: Anthony Watts

A Troubling Tale

Alex Lickerman is a practicing physician who blogs at Happiness in this World. Last week, he posted a short story, "Cause and Effect," – a mini-masterpiece with an O. Henry ending.

The story begins like this:

Athena stood before a full-length mirror in her drab one bedroom apartment, an attractive woman in her late twenties, staring at her image critically, scanning it for flaws. She was dressed in casual evening wear: short skirt and pantyhose with a low-cut blouse showing just a hint of cleavage. She took in a deep breath. This would have to do.

She exited her apartment building to find the night moonless and dark. Taking a quick glance to the left and right, she approached the bus stop at the corner. She looked up at the bus schedule and then down at her watch. The summer breeze blew warmly on her skin. Impulsively, she decided to walk.

I won't spoil the ending for you. If you want to know how it turns out, you'll need to go read it for yourself.

Something to Think About ...

Hat tip: Townhall.com