Pharmacists For Life, Unless It's A Genocide

Regular readers of my little blog garden may remember how I mocked Kemi Olunloyo, a Georgia pharmacist who was planning a pharmacy-type radio talk show in Atlanta. I found the idea way lame, and couldn't resist the opportunity to be a smart-ass. It was all in good fun though, and Kemi herself even made an appearance here to put in her 2 cents. Point being, she was a good sport about the whole thing and more than likely is a decent person. Today however, you'll be introduced to a whole other level of evil in my profession. A pharmacist not to be mocked, but hated. And I don't mean the irony tinged way I've used that word to get a laugh when I'm talking about customers. I mean hated. Loathed. Despised. I know real hate is an ugly emotion not to be taken lightly, but read on for the tale of someone truly deserving of all the hate you can throw her way.

Meet Karen Brauer, President of the outfit "Pharmacists for Life." You may have seen Karen on Fox News, CBS, or CNN, read about her in the Washington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Economist, the leading pharmacy trade magazine Drug Topics, or in your local paper that picked up a story quoting her from the AP and thought to yourself that this Pharmacists for Life outfit must be some big, powerful organization with a giant headquarters somewhere on K street, ready to deploy an army of lobbyists over to the halls of government power to get things done. Or you would think that they'd at least have an office. Think again. According to the group's 2003 IRS filing (most recent available) they raised and spent less than $30,000 and had no paid employees. (Information via Mediamatters.org) Even though that's not a lot of money as far as these advocacy groups go, I would think they would have at least been able to afford a copy of Microsoft Frontpage and/or someone who knows how to use the web-page building program to make a page that isn't...um...hideously fucking ugly, but evidently not, as you can see here. Just in case your eyeballs were starting to melt at the sight of such an incredibly poorly designed web page, or you just didn't feel like boosting this woman's ego by adding to her hit count totals, let me show you a couple highlights from their home page. This first one is her take on the news that an Indian tribe in South Dakota may open a Planned Parenthood clinic on it's reservation, thereby keeping some access for women in a state that just outlawed almost all abortions:



"Sioux tribe gonna scalp 'em own braves, don't need white man to exterminate self"



Well.....that certainly adds some sober, clear-eyed analysis to the debate on this issue, doesn't it?

Next we have this:










"Guv 'Slobodan' sends threatening enforcement letter to IL pharmacists, dictatorial grip tightens, demands they wear 'scarlet letter' showing they have a conscience"


I'll translate that bit of lunatic ranting for you. She's referring to Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who has signed an executive order in his state to ensure that women have access to emergency contraception. Blagojevich, as far is known, has yet to show up for work at the statehouse wearing military fatigues or that odd looking hat depicted on Brauer's website. She seems to be commenting on the governor being of Serbian origin. Evidently this is funny in the world of the Christian fascists.

So let me bring the theme so far into focus. The "Pharmacists For Life" choose to mock the victims of what might be the most successful attempted genocide in world history (estimates vary from 2 million to over 100 million Native Americans systematically killed), and to make light of one of the most recent genocides in world history. (only 8,000 dead, but hey, the hats were cooler). Lordy. With friends like this, life sure as hell doesn't need any enemies.

Don't take my word that Karen Brauer is evil though, take it from Karen Brauer. Here she is on the FAQ of her website, talking about pharmacists who refer patients to another pharmacy because they don't want to fill oral contraceptive/morning after prescriptions:

Material cooperation with such an evil can never be licit even if it may be lawful, as it is in today's society. In fact, pharmacists aware of the evil nature of such a scenario would have a duty as a pharmacist and a person not to cooperate in such an evil even under pain of serious adverse ramifications. Some authors, hiding their publicly stated support for any and all baby killing, have erroneously stated shameful opinions which equivocate on the rights of conscience and thus claim a pharmacist may have a right of conscience, but if all else fails, he must cooperate with the evil in our example. Such thinking shows the irrational absurdity and confusion in the minds of those who adhere to such ideas.

Wow. referring a patient to another store sure must make you evil in Brauer's mind, as the word is used 4 times in that paragraph. Now here she is on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: I got you. Now, when the customer complained, what happened there? Did you refer that customer to somewhere else?

BRAUER: I asked -- I -- she did not complain to me. OK? What happened is, she came in for a refill. I informed her that we did not carry the drug at the time. And I offered to call a copy of her prescription to the pharmacy of her choice.

O'REILLY: And then she complained. But did you -- how -- why would she complain about that, if you didn't have the drug on hand?

BRAUER: Somehow she found out that this pharmacy actually did have the drug at the time.

O'REILLY: So you lied to her.

BRAUER: Yes, I did.

O'REILLY: Ohh. Well, that wasn't good.

BRAUER: The situation concerning her privacy and concerning the people present did not really -- it was not really amenable to giving her information about her drug.

Again:

And I offered to call a copy of her prescription to the pharmacy of her choice.

Thereby making you one evil bitch using your own criteria. Not to mention a liar. Oh, and someone who sees the deaths of millions of people as material for humor. Also a person the mainstream corporate media repeatedly seeks out for comment who gets her bullshit called not by CNN, but by someone calling themselves the Drugnazi. Up is down, black is white my friends. We live in scary times.