Standard Mischief

Here I’m actually trying to write the most sensational, yet technically still true headline can think of. Here’s what apparently happened: Those same Neo-Nazis who’s mere appearance in Toledo started a riot, marched the last weekend in Orlando, Florida. None of those Boneheads were arrested, the march was apparently peaceful. Counter-protesters apparently got into fights with other counter-protesters.

In case anyone else is keeping score, I’m giving the Neo-Nazis only half a point here, apparently they didn’t manage to induce a riot this time. Counter-protesters are still at zero.

I chewed out ABC news, over their coverage of the earlier Toledo riots, in the middle of this post here.

ABC actually didn’t do half bad this time, though I do note that they didn’t included their article in their RSS feed.

Headline: 17 Arrested at Florida Neo-Nazi Rally
Tagline: Violence Breaks Out, 17 Arrested at Neo-Nazi March in Predominantly Black Florida Neighborhood

The included photo appears to be a white Skinhead counter-protester getting dragged away by riot police. The article makes no mention of Skinheads at all.

The biggest Spin award goes to the Orlando Sentinel:

Headline: Neo-Nazis retreat early, swamped by critics, policeApril Hunt | Sentinel Staff Writer

More than 500 counterprotesters held back by 300 police officers drowned out the message of a neo-Nazi group that marched through Orlando’s historic black Parramore neighborhood Saturday.

Yep, “drowned out the message”. No bias here.

Twenty-two members of the National Socialist Movement, some wearing khaki uniforms with swastika armbands, finished their march with a rally outside the federal courthouse that could not be heard over the jeering crowd.The group shut down the rally 90 minutes early and left town.

Seventeen people were arrested, all of them from the crowd separated from the neo-Nazis by lines of police in riot gear.

Police and civic leaders expressed pride that the event ended without the violence some had feared.

“I’ve lived here since 1944, and I’ve never been more proud of Orlando, Orange County and Central Florida,” said former legislator Alzo J. Reddick, one of the organizers of the Be Cool campaign that urged residents to ignore the march and the rally.

Translation: we’re relieved that there was no riot.

There was no mention of those Skinheads in this article either.

The best coverage award (barely) goes to something called AXcess News.

…The march went on as planned through the Orlando neighborhood of Parramore, with about 500 spectators and counter-demonstrators following the group.Orlando police said most of those arrested were members of out-of-town anti-nazi groups. Police identified them as Skinheads Against Racial Prejudices and the Southeastern Anarchist Network, which made up 14 of those arrested….

So here’s what I can figure out. Some of the counter-protesters fought with each other. Some of those arrested were Skinheads. It’s possible that they were mistaken for Nazi Skinheads, hence the fighting, but for the record most Skinheads are not racist. You won’t hear that in the MSM though. They’re still getting mileage out of those ones on that “Trash TV” show who rioted, and smashed a chair into the nose of that totally unbiased, totally objective reporter whose name I can’t remember. (I’ll have to admit that some media prefix “Racist” in front of “Skinhead” as part of their style guide, but I’ve never seen anyone explain themselves.)

The reason AXcess News gets the best coverage award is because they explain a bit about the group Skinheads Against Racial Prejudices, although they fail to use their commonly used acronym, SHARP, nor do they link to any background information on Skinheads in general (Wikipedia).

Let me post this to counteract the misinformation campaigning by hate-mongering groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center. Again, most Skinheads aren’t automatically hate group members. I actually did make the acquaintance of some real Neo-Nazi Skinheads. About a half-dozen or so, and they lived in a group home in Rosslyn, Virginia at the time. Their unofficial leader was a African-American young lady nicknamed “Lefty”. No, I never did figure them out, and yea, they all had the very same MA-1 Flight Jackets and boots laced up exactly the same in some special way. I’ve met a lot of Skins, and these people were by far in the minority.

Well, they have gone and done it. After three ladies (and their supporting groups Planned Parenthood Massachusetts, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, and Jane Doe Inc.) sued to bring media attention to their ?plight?, the Board of Registration in Pharmacy in the state of Massachusetts has arbitrarily ruled that emergency contraceptive is a medicine that is ?commonly prescribed?, and therefore must be stocked at Massachusetts’ 44 Wal-Marts and four Sam’s Club stores.

Again, I have to chew out the lapdog media. In the debate that was in the public forum, absolutely no one found the need to demand proof that emergency contraceptive is indeed ?commonly prescribed?. Those who sued to get their way failed to provide any lies, damn lies, or even any statistics. I’ve checked the three pro-choice group’s websites and a number of the press sites and found nothing.

The best coverage award goes to the Jurist. They linked to not only the pharmacy board, but to the regulation as well. (No word count on the legalese though.)

Just so you know where I stand, here’s the mutant-libertarian scorecard. Pharmacies have the right to decide, in most cases, what they want chose to stock. Individual pharmacists have the right to refuse to fill prescriptions if it’s against their moral beliefs. Pharmacies have the ability to fire pharmacists who refuse to fill valid prescriptions, or for any other case of insubordination (this has to be this way, otherwise I’m converting to Pastafarian, where you get every Friday off as a religious holiday). Fired pharmacists do not have their First Amendment rights restricted, they are free to go work for the ?Vatican Pharmacy? if that’s what they chose.

I’m not opposed to emergency contraceptive, I’m not even opposed to a law that plainly states that all pharmacies in the state of Massachusetts must carry emergency contraceptive, if a law like that was clearly needed. But CVS has already stated that it stocks emergency contraceptive in all of it’s 300+ stores that are located in Massachusetts. There are 1,045 other pharmacies, besides Wal-mart, in Massachusetts, including a mail order pharmacy run by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. Hmm, I wonder if I could sue Planned Parenthood to ensure Viagra was carried by their pharmacy. That’s got to be commonly prescribed medication.

Heck, I’ve even posted a blog entry on how emergency contraceptive is the same exact drug as regular birth control pills. So if your doctor writes out you prescription a little differently, and gives you different dosing instructions you can even get your emergency contraceptive at Wal-Mart, if that’s your only option.

I hashed this out with tgirsch over at SayUncle’s place, but I have little to add to this specific argument. (There are other issues that I’ve promised to address.)

tgirsch Says: But again, this is where our philosophies differ. I think that all that should matter is that a product has been proven safe (FDA approval), that the patient wants or needs it, and that a physician has recommended it (via a prescription). You, however, would add profitability to this equation. In other words, if a patient needs something, and a doctor agrees that the patient needs it, you would allow the market to decide (based on profitability) whether or not the patient actually gets it. That?s why I make my complaint that the market ought to serve us, rather than the other way around.

Yea, I probably didn’t make that too clear. There is no demonstrated need to meddle in this case. Again, the Free Market is working just fine here. Using your argument, pharmacies would also be required to carry medical grade oxygen and radiological imaging drugs. Those last drugs would be useless without expensive and expansive imaging equipment, which (to carry your argument to absurdity) you probably would require Wal-Mart to carry too. My only question is when Wal-Mart drives the medical equipment supply store and the local imaging center out of business, are you going to whine about that too?

A less absurd example. A few years ago I went to a Dermatologist and was provided with a script for a ?commonly prescribed? ointment. I took the prescription to CVS, but was unable to get it filled. Same with the grocery pharmacy and even Wal-Mart. The problem was that it was a compounded prescription, and they only did those during 9-5 weekdays at a central pharmacy location. I was trying to fill my prescription Friday evening before a holiday weekend and was told that I could not get it filled before next Tuesday. The crazy thing was that the pharmacist had the two ointments needed to compound the Rx right on the shelf, but he could not sell me the ointments, a jar, and a stirring stick, because the prescription said otherwise. Should we require a pharmacy to have a compounding pharmacist on hand during all business hours? If so, I’d imagine they would cut back their pharmacy hours instead of keeping the store open 24 hours a day.

I also made some comments over at Feministe for some strange reason. zuzu fell for the same logical fallacy, just like tgirsch did. Well, I’ll let her speak:

zuzu Says: And if Plan B is the same as commonly-prescribed birth control pills, tell me again why it wouldn?t fall under the definition of commonly-prescribed medication?

Standard Mischief Says: Clearly if the notion of ?commonly prescribed drug? includes standard birth control, then the fact that wal-mart does carry standard birth control (they do, I checked) means that it is complying with the law. (excuse me, I meant ?that stupid law?)

Laurie did make a good point about a misassumption I made on birth control pills. A cycle of birth control consists of 21 pills with hormones, 7 ?spacer? pills, and that the newfangled tri-phasic sort have different levels of hormones in each week. You can tell I’m not a consumer here. Thanks Laurie, but when you further complain about guessing and throwing away perfectly good pills I have to say that you don’t guess, you talk to a doctor or a pharmacist, and you don’t worry about throwing away two weeks of pills (only if you have the tri-phasic sort) because it’s an, um, emergency.

I wasn’t invited to the media event, so I was unable to ask the tough questions for my world-wide audience, But instead of just swallowing whatever slop was fed to me, or regurgitating the Associated Press wire report, I decided to do some actual legwork. My procedure was this: I printed out the my other post that had the list of birth control that could be used as emergency contraceptive and took it to a few pharmacies for a price quote. Then I looked them all up in my Physician’s Desk Reference, to be sure that they weren’t the tri-phasic sort (1994 edition, perhaps a bit long of tooth, but it was 2 bux at the used book store). I only got data on one out of the four so I looked up the manufactures official website for the remanding three.

Please note that I am without any formal medical training beyond the first aid merit badge and my CPR course. In other words, I am not a doctor or a pharmacist. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Please double check with a pro first.

Wal-mart was surprisingly busy, so much so that after waiting 5 minute in line without any progress, I gave up. I guess people were combining their pharmacy shopping with their cheap Chinese crap and their Winchester white box ammo purchases. Things were pretty busy at the Safeway grocery and pharmacy, but the attendant did give me one quote. At CVS, it was dead slow, and after I explained myself, I was provided with three good quotes.

Levora?, at CVS (not tri-phasic) for $30.59/21 active pills
Low-Ogestrel?, at CVS (not tri-phasic) for $30.79/21 active pills
Ogestrel?, at Safeway (not tri-phasic) $40.99/21 active pills
Ovral?, at CVS (not tri-phasic) $57.59/21 active pills

OK, so the first two brands, you should need 8 of the active pills, divided to make a dose. The second two have higher dose of hormones in each pill, so you only need 4 pills, divided for each dose of emergency contraceptive (see a pro for proper dosing instructions).

The winner here on the price point is Ogestrel?, at Safeway, which should provide 5 doses of emergency contraceptive at $8.20 a dose. Might I suggest you get together with a few friends and split the cost and tuck your share away for a rainy day?

Update: While I was composing this, SayUncle scooped me.

Update 2: Feministe also scooped me while I was composing this by about 48 hours.

Zuzu Says: Incidentally, for those of you who were nitpicking about the definition of ?commonly prescribed medication? in an earlier thread, note that the board?s decision was unanimous, and that the three women who brought the suit had argued that emergency contraception was commonly prescribed. So it?s safe to say the board agreed with them.

I like that, ?nitpicking?. Gee, I thought that was the core of the debate. Usually I prefer facts and data, but seven appointed people voting the way that might keep the person that appointed them happy is enough proof for me!

(Oh and Feministe people, what’s with the little girl in the excrement colored overalls playing with the pistol grip pump shotgun with the ejector set up for a left-handed person? Am I missing out on some kind of strange cultural reference?)

Checking my local NBC broadcaster, I note that on day 8, (Saturday, February 18) there is going to be some over-the-air broadcasting of the coolest shooting sport, the Biathlon. This is quite surprising, as I don’t ever think I’ve caught anything more than a glimpse of coverage before on the idiot box. I wonder if past NRA letter writing campaigns have actually succeeded.

According to Wikipedia, the Biathlon is a sport that combines cross-country skiing with .22 rifle target shooting. It’s particularly challenging because accurate shooting is much harder when your heart is pumping quickly, and I’m sure cross-country skiing does a great job at doing that. No other common shooting sport really gives you an aerobic workout.

Unfortunately, even with our huge, healthy, diverse culture of gun ownership, we usually do extremely poorly in international competition. Why is this? Part of it might be because you really need a lot of specialized equipment. You need snow, skis, and a bolt action rifle. That’s not something I can scrounge up every weekend.

There is an alternative, a sport called ?Summer Biathlon?, but I have a few problems with it. First off, you don’t get to carry your rifle with you. This is probably a safety issue, but I think it can be safely overcome. Second, you are shooting just .22 LR. Third, you are running in circles. Keep this for the beginners, scouts and kids, but I think we can do better.

I envision this as a sport to build us a nation of riflemen (riflepeoples, whatever). People turn to sports as a means of fun fitness, and IMHO there are few sports as fun as making the boomsticks go boom. Also, if this was to become a popular sport, we might just start getting some military recruits that can already shoot.

So the ?Overland Biathlon? would be a running event, in an attempt to make this sport more accessible to all. Despite the fact that I’m an Kalashnikov fan, the carried rifle ought to be a semiauto M-16 variant (AR-15 and the like) because that’s our service rifle. If necessary, there could be a copper plated or paper patched bullet version of the normally jacketed 5.56 round to help the targets last a bit longer. The targets would be the same steel plates, but suspended, to ring like a bell when you hit them. The name of the game is hitting your target, not driving tacks, and the audible feedback from a ringing steel plate is immediate.

The course should be laid out as a cross country run, if possible. Running in circles ought to be preserved as penalty laps for athletes that miss their targets. Carrying a loaded weapon between stations would be prohibited, participants would be required to remove the magazine, clear the chamber, and close the bolt on a florescent orange plastic flag/dummy round before moving on to the next station. Standard procedure would be to ?dummy cord? this to the rifle. Shooters should have to carry all their needed ammo with them while running the course, and they must continue shooting at the targets until they get a hit at each station. If there were any misses, they are forced to run the mentioned penalty lap. Participants shoot at the targets in all the standard positions (standing; kneeling and prone).

Besides putting a course on every possible military base, once I manage to convince the rest of the world that golf is the most useless sport imaginable there should be plenty of unused courses ready for conversion to Overland Biathlon. Oh, and all those unused golf driving ranges? They get converted to drive-by shooting ranges.