Currently listening to podcast No Agenda which breaks down as follows: 70% crackpot, 25% begging for donations, 38% entertaining me (there’s substantial entertaining/crackpot overlap). But one thing they just said really hacked me off.

They say Obama  just appointed some dude to head up some agricultural trade commission. Whatever. The problem, they say, is that this new appointee used to have some other bigshot government health job where he lifted the cap on how much drug companies could charge for cancer drugs. Both show hosts are disgusted with Obama appointing this jerk who, they imply, must be beholden to Big Cancer. “And this really hits home because my aunt has cancer,” says Adam Curry.

STOP.  A cap on drug prices HURTS cancer patients.

Say a drug company sees potential for a possible new cancer treatment drug, but the government puts a cap on how much they’d be allowed to charge for it. They run the numbers and realize that even if they developed a drug that actually worked, they couldn’t break even on it, let alone make a profit.

Would you want a company in your 401k portfolio if they produced drugs at a net loss? No, and neither would any other stockholder. Investments would dry up, jobs would be lost, and the company would eventually go under.

Putting price caps on cancer drugs prevent drug companies from exploring and developing innovative treatments.

What’s that you say? ..This post has nothing to do with criminology?..

Hey kids, don’t start fires.

Canadian police charge man over bus beheading

When Mr Caton and two others returned to the bus to check on the victim, he said they saw the attacker “cutting the guy’s head off and gutting him”. Moments later, police surrounded the bus and arrested the man after a nearly three-hour standoff, an official said. “He was taunting police with the head in his hand out the window,” said Mr Caton.

(Nothing like witnessing a violent crime to thrust you into the spotlight where you belong, eh Mr Caton?)

But wait, there’s more…

Teen sexually assaulted girl on school bus, police say

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s office said Branden Allen, 18, a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy were arrested on charges of sexual battery and false imprisonment.  Authorities say the two younger male teens boarded the parked bus and acted as lookouts as Allen “sexually battered the victim despite her resistance and protestations.”

BONUS!!  Priceless comment left on another blog in response to this news story – Slightly edited for rambling:

The liens were never actually placed by the bonding agency, and last Thursday the prosecution filed a motion to haul Mohanlal’s ass (and probably the rest of him… court documents don’t specify) back to jail where he belongs.

The boy, now 18, says he “can’t understand what the judge was thinking.”  Well, perhaps the judge was simply considering the nuanced shades of gray present in any criminal case.  Even Mohanlal isn’t all bad; for instance, he always made sure he sent his victim back to class with a note excusing his absence.

Prosecutor: Bring child molestor back into custody CNN.com

San Francisco Chronicle

Megan Meier: In 2006, when she was 13 years old, Megan hung herself in her bedroom closet after receiving a cruel message from her Myspace crush. Her dad later saw it on the screen.. 16-year-old Josh Evans had told Megan the world would be a better place without her. Ouch, baby.

Lori Drew: Megan’s ex-friend’s 48-year-old mom. She heard Megan was saying nasty stuff about her kid, so she invented “Josh Evans” and created a profile for him on Myspace. The plan was to gain Megan’s trust and “find out what she thought about [Lori's daughter] and about other people,” per the police report. Right now she’s neck-and-neck with Britney Spears for Mother of the Year.

Ashley Grills: A 19-year-old temp employed by Lori Drew. She appeared on Good Morning America to defend herself against Lori’s assertion that the shenanigans were all her idea. Per Ashley, Lori was the instigator, even suggesting they could set up a meeting between Josh and Megan at the mall, then show up to laugh at her.

What happened: Megan’s parents found her in her closet, the message from “Josh” still on her computer screen. They had no inkling Josh wasn’t real until six weeks after Megan’s death. The Meiers and Drews lived in the same neighborhood, and eventually word leaked. The Drews became pariahs (my mom says that’s different than piranhas but sometimes I get them mixed up since both are things you don’t want to be around) and a target of self-righteous vandals.

Against the advice of neighbors, Lori and her husband Curt went to the Meiers’ house to “explain” and when they weren’t let in, started banging on the doors. On Thanksgiving. Click the report if you have weak eyes. (It’s okay, nobody’s recording your IP address and selling information indicating corneal defects to your health insurance provider at a tidy profit.)

Local law enforcement didn’t press charges for the Myspace incident because they felt that technically, no crime had been committed. But federal authorities became involved and, in unprecedented precedent, Lori Drew is now facing prosecution for violating Myspace terms of service by creating a false account.

Rob McKenna sez: “The Bill of Rights is part of this complete breakfast!”

Watch out America. The feds are coming after you for that Facebook account you made for the pair of mules in the muddy corral off 228th St in Canyon Park. It’s all fun and games until somebody gets indicted.

[Note: To be fair, you could have made a separate account for each mule; combining them is indicative of your maturity and restraint.]

Holland, June 2007 Filled with the heady exuberance of youth (and cocaine), a young Hollandite decided to take daddy’s car for a spin. Four cop cars were damaged as police tried to keep him off the main roads. Finally he crashed into a ditch, but not before destroying some poor farmer’s corn field.  Yet another example of why kids shouldn’t be allowed to do blow without parental supervision.

Child prostitute, 1871. Inscription on the back: Mary Simpson a common prostitute age 10 or 11 year. She has been known as Mrs. Berry for at least two years. She is four month with child.

[Anonymous photographer. Silverprint 8 1/2" x 6", via Wikipedia.]

In court, Braddy was wearing an electric shock device and knee brace and was surrounded by “extra police officers, all measures taken after Braddy escaped from the courthouse in 1984 when he choked a Miami-Dade County corrections officer.”

“During two other escapes that year, Braddy kidnapped and robbed an assistant pastor and an elderly couple. At one point Braddy was on the run for more than a month before authorities found him in Georgia.”

So yeah, it’s a good thing Miami-Dade County is so cautious with this obviously dangerous, violent criminal. Unfortunately, it seems they neglected to use the knee brace, electronic shock device and extra police when they released him from prison in 1997 for “good behavior” — after serving less than half of a 30-year sentence for a variety of charges, including two counts of attempted murder.

“After he was arrested for kidnapping the Maycocks, he tried to escape from the interrogation room by bending an air conditioning grate.”

Via The Perry Bible Fellowship by boy-genius Nicholas Gurewitch

Seattle, WA: A man singing Coldplay’s “Yellow” at a Seattle karaoke bar was violently attacked by an enraged 21-year-old girl. “Oh, no, not that song. I can’t stand that song!” she screamed, and lunged at the singer. It took several people to pull her off of him.  I don’t blame the girl, though.. the victim’s blood is on Chris Martin’s immaculately groomed head.

Rochelle, GA: Juanita Jones, 53, called police to “help her get her money back” after discovering she’d unwittingly paid full price for substandard crack. Oh, those crazy crackheads and their madcap shenanigans!!