http://kotaku.com/…

Melissa Batten, 36, a software development engineer in Microsoft’s Xbox division, was murdered by her estranged husband, who then shot himself to death, earlier this week.

Batten, a Harvard-educated lawyer, was a Software Development Engineer in Test for Microsoft, supporting Rare on its 360 titles work. She had worked for Microsoft since 2002, earning credits in Halo 3 and Gears of War as an SDET. Earlier, as a lawyer, she had been a public defender for the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, N.C.) Public Defender’s Office.

Her husband, Joseph Batten, was also 36. He had also worked for Microsoft but most recently worked for Wizards of the Coast, publisher of hobby games such as Magic: the Gathering. Melissa had obtained a restraining order against her husband on July 21. Another news story describes Joseph Batten as obsessive and verbally abusive, and when she learned he had obtained a handgun, she sought the protection order.

If our society put greater emphasis on self defense and personal responsibility likely these happenings would occur less often. It looks like Washington state has fairly liberal gun laws, if that is in fact where it happened, she could have armed herself in addition to requesting protection. Instead she went with begging the government to protect her… something which the SCOTUS has said the government has no obligation to do.

http://www.cnn.com/…

A French woman severely disfigured by facial tumors has been been found dead just two days after a court rejected her request for an assisted suicide.

Medical examiners were Thursday looking into the death of 52-year-old Chantal Sebire — whose case had prompted nominally Roman Catholic France to reexamine its stance on euthanasia — to determine whether anything illegal had taken place.

It was not immediately clear how Sebire died.

Sebire had suffered from esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare and incurable form of cancer for eight years, developing tumors in her nasal passages and sinuses that distorted her face and caused her nose and eyes to bulge.

The woman from Dijon, in eastern France, said drugs were ineffective against the excruciating pain caused by the condition and there was no reason doctors should not be permitted to hasten her death.

Assisted suicide is illegal in France, however. The law permits only passive euthanasia — removing feeding and hydration tubes when a person is in a coma, or inducing a coma and then removing the tubes.

Sebire’s lawyer had tried to convince a French court that it was “barbaric” to put her through the ordeal of dying slowly in an artificial coma, something that could take up to two weeks while her three children looked on in anguish.

The court turned down the appeal Monday.

At the same time, Sebire wrote a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealing for help, but he responded by suggesting top doctors should reexamine her for a second opinion.

This is really really sick. The courts decision was bad but Sarkozy’s was worse. As if this woman hadn’t gotten every single opinion reasonable. People treat their pets more humanely. I’m glad this woman spent the time to fight for death rights instead of just going and killing herself when she originally wanted to do so. In fact her suicide just two days after being denied the right to do so kept the situation fresh and I think expanded the effectiveness of what she tried to accomplish.

The video is called “Huckabee to Ron Paul” but it’s more likely aimed at Romney since Paul hasn’t spent “tens of millions of dollars.” I wonder if there will be any sort of outrage over this comment. You know that if it was Paul there would be but since Huckabee is now the MSM’s sweetheart I’m sure it’ll go silently into the night.