I’m wondering if harsher penalties would be appropriate and also changing the charge to something different. But what charge? Bear with me and I will explain. Everyone who drives a car knows that drink driving is a no-no. So, if you have been drinking and get behind the wheel then you know that what you are about to do is likely to kill someone; your actions are premeditated. (Worked out where I’m going yet?) If you commit a premeditated act that is likely to kill someone then you are committing attempted murder. I’m sure any legal eagles will find holes in that argument but hey, what happened to the spirit of the law?

To charge with attempted murder is, perhaps, excessive but the punishment should, I feel, reflect the gravity of the offence. Having said that, a little leeway might be a good thing. A damn good kicking before the door gets really slammed. Perhaps a punishment regime something like this…

In New Zealand the blood alcohol limit is 80mg of alcohol per decilitre of blood, over that and your busted. Perhaps lowering this to, say, 75 would be a good move. But that becomes the level at which you get the kicking, not the door slam. Between 75 and 85 (see, slight increase there) you get a hefty fine, $500 comes to mind and no, you DON’T get to pay it off at $1 a week. You have 30 days to pay or your vehicle gets sold. Did I forget to mention that your vehicle got impounded when you were busted? Oh dear, silly me. Anyway, once you’ve paid the fine you get your vehicle back, if it goes past 30 days, you don’t. You got a damn good kicking and your status has changed slightly, ‘cos you don’t get a second chance. Anything over 75 mg/dl now gets the door slammed.

The door slam. Your vehicle is forfeit. I don’t care what it is, it’s gone. It gets sold and the proceeds go towards paying for the newspaper adverts that show your name, address and picture telling everyone that you are an asshole. You were driving a new Ferrari? Bummer. It isn’t your vehicle? Then the owner might like a quiet word with you before they sue your ass off! It’s your wife’s/girlfriends car? Guess who ain’t getting laid for a very long time! You also loose your driving licence. Sliding scale of time I think: 6 months for the first 5 points over the limit, a year for the next 5 points and permanently for anything over that. No special needs licences for work or whatever - you lost it, period.

Get busted a second time and you loose your car and your licence, period.

Get busted a third time and you are really in the poo. Thick smelly brown stuff, right up to your neck, ‘cos you are heading for PMITA jail for 1 year for each point over the limit you were. Not only were you pissed but you seem determined to kill someone and that ain’t the way to do things.

Remember I mentioned attempted murder earlier. If you are driving and kill someone and you are over the lower limit then you have an automatic conviction for murder. PMITA jail for a life sentence. No appeals, ‘cos there ain’t one. You were over the limit and that’s that.

So folks, there you are, my way of getting drunk drivers off the road. Will it ever happen? Not on your life! The idea of actually doing something to keep pissed up motorists off the road would have the politicos up in arms, it would mean they were seen to actually deal with a problem, and we can’t have that, can we?

And no, I haven’t lost a friend or family member to a drunk driver, it’s just something I feel strongly about.

Doug Burns is a type 1 diabetic.

Doug Burns is also in the midst of a serious miscarriage of justice!

In a nutshell, Mr. Burns had a hypoglycaemic episode in a theatre. The security staff thought he was drunk and kicked him out. They also called the cops, who arrived on the scene and attempted to subdue Mr. Burns who resisted and was busted. Read the full story here.

When it was found out that he was in a hypo you would think that would be an end to the matter, but no, he has been busted and the case is going to court!

Everyone of us who has had a hypo knows that our brains don’t work rationally in that state. The medical profession are well aware of this too. So why the hell has he been arraigned before a court? If he had epilepsy and had hit an officer during a grand mal would he be appearing before a court? One would hope not, but, given what is happening to Mr. Burns, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least!

I can only hope that the case is dismissed and that the police/DA are given a good rap over the knuckles by the judge for crass stupidity. The police and DA should also give Mr. Burns a very public apology.

If, however, Mr. Burns is found guilty then a SERIOUS miscarriage of justice will have occurred. I also worry for the rest of us who suffer from diseases that screw with our brains. Are we all going to get busted because we are ill?

In Bernard’s comment to this post he mentions Amy Tenderich’s suggestion to call the District Attorneys involved in the case. Amy’s site, Diabetes Mine, has the details. Please call those numbers and leave appropriate messages.

I would add another number to call, the Office of the Attorney General - 202-353-1555. The Department of Justice’s mission statement says “To enforce the law … and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.” and, unless I’m missing something here, “fair” is definitely not happening to Mr. Burns!

As reported by Amy T…

Blood glucose is measured in two different ways, as either Millions of MOLecules of glucose per Litre (mmol/L) or Milligrams per Decilitre (mg/dl) of blood. Most countries use mmol/L, the USA use mg/dl. To convert mmol/L to mg/dl multiply by 18. Here in New Zealand we use mmol/L so I post readings like that with the mg/dl value in the brackets.

There is an additional number you will see diabetics discussing, HBA1c (often shortened to A1c). During the life (about 4 months) of haemoglobin, glucose molecules will combine with haemoglobin molecules. How much glucose combines is dependent on how much you have in you. The important bit is that once it has combined, it stays combined. The amount of this glycosylated haemoglobin is measurable. Non-diabetics will have between 4 and 6% of their haemoglobin glycosylated (that can vary, but not by much), diabetics are (usually) somewhat higher than that. Measurement of HBA1c gives an excellent indication of how well controlled a diabetic has been over a significant (weeks) period of time.

The closer us diabetics can get to the normal range, the better. My average is in the sixes, but I’m aiming for the fives, and I WILL get there!

It saddens and frightens me that many health professionals and organizations seem to think that an HBA1c in the sevens or even eights is nothing to worry about and completely acceptable. I am sure that they are not giving their patients good advice. The higher your HBA1c, the higher your risk of complications. That’s a cumulative effect too. High blood glucose causes damage, persistent high blood glucose causes damage to the damage and so on.

So, there you have it, an explanation of what the numbers mean. If you aren’t diabetic then your knowledge has been increased, if you are diabetic…

One of the regulars on there is in hospital right now. She hit 42.6 (767) despite having NINETY units of NovoRapid. Fortunately she got to hospital before DKA (wiki on Diabetic Ketoacidosis) got her. I’ve never been that high and I’ve certainly never taken that much NovoRapid. Having said that, Tuesday was a bitch. My waking test was 13.7(247) and it took forty units of NovoRapid to get back into the normal range.

There are days when diabetes confuses the hell out of me. There are days when it scares me badly. There are days when I scream “Why me?”. There are days when it makes me laugh. There are days when it exasperates me.

But, every single day of every single week of the rest of my life I will have diabetes and if I don’t cope with it then my life is going to suck, big time. I’ll either have horrible complications in my (shortened) old age or die if I miss a hypo and don’t get found. So, guess what, I do cope with it and I do control it. And, not surprisingly, I’m going to continue coping and cotrolling because…

Marine Parade
Paraparaumu Beach

04 298 1500

The name suggests “English people that are a nuisance” or “apples on fire”. Unfortunately, the former description is the more accurate.

We entered and stood there, twiddling our thumbs until we eventually had our table pointed out to us. Showing us to our table simply didn’t happen.

The menu is short and after very little thought I decided to try Toad-in-the-Hole, a quintessentially English dish consisting of, for those who don’t know, Sausages baked in batter. We were warned that there was a 25 minute wait for this dish, which at least shows that it was cooked to order. My dinner companion is mostly vegetarian and selected Vegetable Filo Wraps, one of the pair of vegetarian options. Given the short menu, it was a pleasant surprise to find two vegetarian options on there. We ordered a “Basket of Chips” as a side order.

Our dishes appeared, reasonably well presented. Filo Wraps had a salad arranged on the plate and Toad-in-the-Hole came with peas, mashed potato and onion gravy. The mashed potato was good, smooth and with an excellent flavour. The chips were good - properly cooked, crisp and golden. The rest of the meal was lack lustre. The sausages were, at best, uninteresting and the batter acceptable but a little on the stodgy side. The Filo Wraps were, according to my dinner companion, “tasteless” and appeared to have nothing but potato and broccoli in them. The onion gravy had, I fear, an element of “packet mix” about it.

The place itself is brown. Brown from the floor to the ceiling. There is little in the way of décor and the chairs we had were uncomfortable. The English are not noted for flamboyance and the interior of “Flamin’ Poms” proves that. I should be noted that I’m English myself, so can speak with some authority on the matter.

To blame the waiting staff for the poor level of service would be invidious, I am quite sure they have had no training whatsoever and so the management must bear the brunt. The management would do well to invest in some good training. The staff were pleasant people and would, I am sure, be excellent at their job, if they were trained.

Desert was considered but only for a fleeting moment. My companion had noticed deserts going to other tables looked rather sad and the waitress who was going to bring us the desert menu failed to do so. She had, however, reached across my partner to pick up her napkin and had used the napkin to clean the table, which is not how to wait on tables. Our experience so far suggested we should go elsewhere for desert and we did just that.

Menu (1.5 / 5)
Service (1 / 5)
Food (2 / 5)
Atmosphere (1 / 5)
Overall (5.5 / 20)

I’ve been uping my Lantus (basal insulin) a little and still it doesn’t make a difference. Yesterday evening I had a bit of a binge on chocolate and fruit gum type things. Well, no surprise, they shot me up. But I had a couple of good hits of NovoRapid (quick insulin) to deal with it. I went to bed at 00:45 and I was 14.1 (254) but I still had a fair bit of NR in me to bring me down.

At 03:15 I woke up with cramp in my right leg which took me a while to get rid of. I tested at 10.8 (195). Still high, but not ludicrously so. There wouldn’t have been much NR left by then, but I would have expected what was in there to get me down into the nines (~165).

Since I woke up this morning I’ve had the following numbers.

07:47 - 16.6 (299)
09:52 - 18.4 (331)
10:20 - 19.7 (355)
10:39 - 16.6 (299)
11:44 - 12.4 (233)
13:09 - 7.3 (131)

During that time I have had one slice of toast (~16.5g carb) with a little spread and yeast extract. I’ve had my normal AM basal of 18u Lantus and Somewhere over FORTY units of NR.

This is geting me down big time.

The delightful lass in the basket is Mischief, one of my pair of darling puddy tats.

• Medical Ethics - A doctor has taken the Hippocratic Oath in some form or other. In principle, that oath says that a physician may not do anything that may harm life. I would suggest that euthanasia might actually improve life, albeit in the short term. Which would you rather have, a few days in which to say goodbye to friends and family, happy in the knowledge that your pain and suffering will be over soon, or, potentially, many years of that pain and suffering, pain and suffering that is likely to effect the lives of many others. By assisting in euthanasia a physician may have given the best treatment available. However, some physicians may feel unable to assist in euthanasia. So I suggest that if euthanasia is legalised then all physicians should add a smaller addition to their personal registration that says whether they will or will not assist in euthanasia. The physician then has the choice to opt in or out as fits their own standpoint.

• Moral acceptability - For some people, euthanasia is tantamount to murder or suicide. That is, of course, their own opinion and they are completely entitled to it.
• Religion - Many people with religious beliefs say that human life belongs to their god, and so we have not got the right to end it. Again, this is their personal opinion and they are entitled to it.
• Can it be done? - Are you, as the patient, competent to make the decision under the circumstances. You may be under the influence of a variety of drugs and be suffering. Your metal state may not be competent to make a reasoned decision.
• Is it needed? - Is the suffering temporary or is it genuinely terminal or incurable?
• The needs of others - Family and friends may not want their loved one to die. I can understand that totally, I would not wish those that I love to die. But then, do I want them to suffer? Of course not. To me, accepting, and supporting their decision to die may be the biggest expression of my love for them that there could be. My only wish would be to be there when they go, to hold their hand so they know that I love them. And yes, I will cry uncontrollably. Yes, I will grieve and mourn for them. I will also be happy, knowing that they are no longer suffering, that they are at peace. I would rather my abiding memories of them were of happy times, not of pain and suffering.
• Coercion - Medical care costs money and there are those who would try to get people to accept euthanasia simply to ease that financial burden. This is, of course, abominable and easily preventable, as you will see.

The solution to each of the last six is simple. You, the individual, opt in or out before it become of importance. Your doctor or some similar reasonable authority, maybe even a separate “Euthanasia Register” kept by government, keeps a record of your decision, and on what grounds you opt out, if you do opt out, regarding euthanasia. You opt in or out as you desire. If your beliefs say “no” then you opt out. The whole point being that is a decision for you, the individual, to decide, not others.

If you have opted out then euthanasia cannot happen, unless decided on by what one might call the “Euthanasia Tribunal”, who will make a decision appropriately. If you have opted out then there would have to be very compelling reasons for the tribunal to approve the euthanasia.

The Euthanasia Tribunal is a group of competent people who will look at each case and make an appropriate decision. Those that sit on it MUST have opted in to euthanasia in general and be seen to be impartial. The tribunal hears evidence from those for and against euthanasia in this specific case, not in general. You reason for opting out would also be observed, so, for example, if you opt out for religious reasons, then the clergy can speak against. Take, for example, the following. A man and his family are deeply religious. His spouse is not, but her family is. The spouse is in a situation where euthanasia is possibly appropriate, but has not registered her desired option and is not in a competent state to make the decision. The tribunal is not allowed to hear one word against it from anyone who has opted out for a moral or religious reason, on the principle that their opinion would reflect their morals or religion, rather than the patient’s. I would suggest that the tribunal consist of a judge and several physicians, at least two of which should be experts in the particular condition the patient has. The tribunal has the power to say yes or no to euthanasia. It also has the power to examine the cost of continuing treatment. If that cost is beyond what the person or their immediate family can afford, then the cost of that care, what ever it is, will be born by the state. This would negate the coercion factor.

So, there it is, my solution to the euthanasia issue. We all opt in or out. Physicians and the others who may be involved in the decision path opt in or out. If the individual has opted in then only others who have opted in may be part of the decision path.

I’m quite sure that there are plenty of holes in what I’ve said and there must, of course, be process in place to ensure that abuse does NOT occur. I hope you will agree though, that it gives the individual, whose body it is, to make the decision appropriate to them rather than having the opinions of others foisted upon them.

My regstration details? I’ll opt in please, it’s what I want for me and my body.

Being inquisitive I looked at these figures a little further. Simple arithmetic gives us 0.058824 kilometres per litre for the 747 and 12.5 kilometres per litre for the Mondeo.

Let’s now factor in the weight. A Mondeo, with 4 people in it and a bit of stuff in the boot weighs roughly two tonnes, maximum takeoff weight for a 747-400 is 396.89 tonnes.

The Mondeo is, therefore, travelling roughly 25 kilometres per litre per tonne. The jumbo is travelling 23.35 kilometres per litre per tonne, so it isn’t actually that much worse once you have taken the weight into account.

There is, however, one enormous factor that isn’t shown above. The jumbo is traveling at best part of TEN TIMES the speed of the Mondeo but using only a fraction more fuel per tonne to do it.

Which makes me think that the jumbo jet is,actually very fuel efficient, when compared to a fairly standard saloon car. And I bet driving a jumbo is way more fun than a Mondeo!