By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO─ The Supreme Court ruled that the drug Midazolam can be used to render condemned killers comatose even though there is evidence that those who have received it felt pain during the remainder of their executions. This opens the possibility for states that cannot afford Midazolam to administer Ambien even though people being executed might sleep walk during their executions.
*
NBC and Univision dropped televising the Miss USA Pageant to protest Donald Trump’s remarks about Mexicans. To replace it, they plan to air a biography of Trump titled “The Ugly American.”
*
Proponents of polygamy hope that the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage can be extrapolated to justify plural marriages. In legal terms this is called the multiplier effect.
*
An NGO in Cambodia is training rats to sniff out land minds left by the Pol Pot regime. If this method works, it will end the myriad of deaths and injuries caused annually by the mines. If it doesn’t, it will eliminate the rats.
*
A former firefighter who retired prematurely due to severe health problems caused by exposure to toxins he encountered as a first responder to 9/11 has won $5 million in a lottery. Congressional Republicans fiscally opposed to extending the Zadroga Act which compensates 9/11 first responders for their medical costs have introduced an amendment to fund the purchase of one lottery ticket annually for first-responders who suffer from adverse health effects traced to working at the ruins of the World Trade Center.
*
Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com . San Diego Jewish World points out to new readers that this column is satire, and nothing herein should be taken literally.