Random Acts of Coolness #4: Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

Our Friend, Funky Dung had a guest poster who announced that he’s a pharmacists who refuses to provide abortifacients. Its an incisive commentary that everyone should read:

The groups that are pushing for pharmacists like me to “shut up and fill the prescription” argue that no matter what I believe about birth control, the decision occurs between a woman and her physician and I should not push my “morality” into the situation. I should not councel any patient about how this drug works (by the way, when was the last time your doctor told you how any drug works?) so that she can reconsider her decision, I should not warn her that birth control has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer or can cause life-threatening thromboembolic events (blood clots) including stroke, I should not tell her about other side effects such as peripheral edema (swelling mainly of the ankles), severe nausea, decreased glucose tolerance (which can lead to diabetes), depression, anxiety, etc., and I most certainly should NOT be able to refuse to fill it. To me this is the same as forcing an OB/GYN to perform an abortion.

Why, then, does my profession exist? Why did I spend six years earning a doctorate in order to be told I play no part in the decision of what is appropriate drug therapy? Let me turn the situation around. Let’s say a young woman is trying to get pregnant and succeeds but is not yet aware of the pregnancy. Unfortunately, she comes down with pneumonia. When she goes to the doctor, she tells him/her that she is allergic to penicillins. Said doctor prescribes doxycycline, but in haste forgets to ask if she may be pregnant and/or give the simple urine test to confirm such diagnosis. She brings me a prescription which is the right dose, duration and frequency, is perfectly legal, and seems to make sense for her infection. According to the above mentality, I should be required to fill it with no questions asked, since this treatment decision was already finalized between her and her physician. Indeed, I should not even bother mentioning whether the prescription was appropriate or not since it was legal – after all, that’s all that counts, right? However, doxycycline is listed as pregnancy category D, meaning that it is known to be harmful to developing fetuses, and her baby is born with severe birth defects, or worse yet, does not survive. When her lawyer is making the list of health professionals to sue for malpractice, my name will be on it and I will have my license suspended if not revoked.

You can find even more great pieces at The Best of Homespun Bloggers:

Back off Government is not thrilled with Bush’s visit to a state-sanctioned China church:

But what was Bush thinking? He wants to send out a message about religious freedom, and to do that he appears to be endorsing the same State Sponsored churches that are the problem in the first place?

Bush made it clear when speaking outside after the service that he had found the worship genuine.

“The spirit of the Lord is very strong inside your church,” he told pastor Du Fengying, whose sermon he had listened to via a translation headset.

No doubt there are probably many genuine believers in those Churches. But that is not the point. The point is, that the Chinese government just got footage of President George Bush – the leader of the Free world – appearing to endorse State Sponsored churches.

Well said, though I’m not certain what Bush could have done instead. He obviously couldn’t have gone to an underground church. However, this sent
a very confusing signal to those who know what’s going on in China.

Andrea pointed out to me that liberals aren’t exactly happy either because of him writing, “God bless the Christians of China”. See here. Of course, they can’t take off their PC caps for one minute to realize that Christians are being persecuted and it was Bush’s way of taking a stance against persecution. Also, as the government’s Atheist and most of the rest of the population are Buddhists (who don’t believe in God) who else would be expecting God to bless them?

And if you weren’t noticing (because the liberal media didn’t tell you), Oil Prices have dropped. Below the Beltway has the story.

I heard about that great new project, Open Source Media and I seriously mean that. I’m not going to bash them, LaShawn, I don’t blame anyone for trying to find a way to make a good living. Good luck to you. However, according to The Buzz Machine, they need to do something about the name because its taken.

Finally, Michelle Malkin has a post about Islam being taught in public schools. The 9th Circus Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that students “engaged in no actual religious excercises.” Well, the story’s been in the news for years. This time, Michelle’s got excerpts of the material on her website and it’s a bombshell. It once again proves that its okay to teach religion in schools as long as that religion’s not Christianity.