| Subject name | Jack Kevorkian |
|---|---|
| Image name | Kevorkian.jpg |
| Birth name | Murad Kevorkian |
| Birth date | May 26, 1928 |
| Birth place | Pontiac, Michigan, U.S. |
| Charge | 1st degree murder |
| Conviction | 2nd degree murder (1999) |
| Conviction penalty | 10–25 years imprisonment |
| Conviction status | paroled 2007 (for 3 years) |
| Occupation | Pathologist}} |
Jack Kevorkian, (; born May 26, 1928) is an American pathologist, right-to-die activist, painter, composer, and instrumentalist. He is best known for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide; he claims to have assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He famously said that "dying is not a crime."
Beginning in 1999 Kevorkian served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence for second-degree murder. He was released on parole on June 1, 2007, on condition that he would not offer suicide advice to any other person.
An oil painter and a jazz musician, Kevorkian has marketed limited quantities of his visual and musical artwork to the public.
Kevorkian started advertising in Detroit newspapers in 1987 as a physician consultant for "death counseling." In 1991 the State of Michigan revoked Kevorkian's medical license and made it clear that given his actions, he was no longer permitted to practice medicine or to work with patients. Between 1990 and 1998, Kevorkian assisted in the deaths of 130 terminally ill people, according to his lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. In each of these cases, the individuals themselves allegedly took the final action which resulted in their own deaths. Kevorkian allegedly assisted only by attaching the individual to a euthanasia device that he had made. The individual then pushed a button which released the drugs or chemicals that would end his or her own life. Two deaths were assisted by means of a device which delivered the euthanizing drugs mechanically through an I.V.. Kevorkian called it a "Thanatron" (death machine). Other people were assisted by a device which employed a gas mask fed by a canister of carbon monoxide which was called "Mercitron" (mercy machine).
He is also an oil painter. His work tends toward the grotesque; he sometimes paints with his own blood, and has created pictures such as one "of a child eating the flesh off a decomposing corpse."
Kevorkian demonstrated a flair for dramatic publicity stunts at this time. In response to charges filed against him based on common law, he showed up in 18th-century garb, including powdered wig, and entered the courthouse in a pillory. He protested another incarceration by staging a hunger strike and wearing a placard challenging the Oakland County prosecutor to bring him to trial for the death of Thomas Youk.
On March 26, 1999, Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder and the delivery of a controlled substance (administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk). Kevorkian's license to practice medicine had been revoked eight years previously; he was not legally allowed to possess the controlled substance. As homicide law is relatively fixed and routine, this trial was markedly different from earlier ones that involved an area of law in flux (assisted suicide). Kevorkian discharged his attorneys and proceeded through the trial representing himself. The judge ordered a criminal defense attorney to remain available at trial as standby counsel for information and advice. Inexperienced in law and persisting in his efforts to represent himself, Kevorkian encountered great difficulty in presenting his evidence and arguments. In particular, he was not able to call any witnesses to the stand because the judge did not deem the testimony of any of his witnesses relevant.
The Michigan jury found Kevorkian guilty of second-degree homicide. It was proven that he had directly killed a person because Youk was not physically able to kill himself. Youk, unable to assist in his suicide, agreed to let Kevorkian kill him using controlled substances. The judge sentenced Kevorkian to serve 10–25 years in prison and told him: "You were on bond to another judge when you committed this offense, you were not licensed to practice medicine when you committed this offense and you hadn't been licensed for eight years. And you had the audacity to go on national television, show the world what you did and dare the legal system to stop you. Well, sir, consider yourself stopped." Kevorkian was sent to prison in Coldwater, Michigan.
In the course of the various proceedings, Kevorkian made statements under oath and to the press that he considered it his duty to assist persons in their death. He indicated under oath that because he thought laws to the contrary were archaic and unjust, he would persist in civil disobedience, even under threat of criminal punishment. Future intent to commit crimes is an element parole boards may consider in deciding whether to grant a convicted person relief. After his conviction (and subsequent losses on appeal) Kevorkian was denied parole repeatedly.
In an MSNBC interview aired on September 29, 2005, Kevorkian said that if he were granted parole, he would not resume directly helping people die and would restrict himself to campaigning to have the law changed. On December 22, 2005, Kevorkian was denied parole by a board on the count of 7-2 recommending not to give parole.
Reportedly terminally ill with Hepatitis C, which he contracted while doing research on blood transfusions in Vietnam, Kevorkian was expected to die within a year in May 2006. After applying for a pardon, parole, or commutation by the parole board and Governor Jennifer Granholm, he was paroled for good behavior on June 1, 2007. He had spent eight years and two and a half months behind bars.
Kevorkian was on parole for two years, under the conditions that he not help anyone else die, or provide care for anyone older than 62 or disabled. Kevorkian said he would abstain from assisting any more terminal patients with death, and his role in the matter would strictly be to persuade states to change their laws on assisted suicide. He is also forbidden by the rules of his parole from commenting about assisted suicide. On June 4, 2007, Kevorkian appeared on CNN's Larry King Live to discuss his time in prison and his future plans. At the time of Kevorkian's release, Oregon was the only state to legalize doctor-assisted suicide; Montana and Washington state have since legalized it as well.
On February 5, 2009, Kevorkian lectured to students and faculty at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida. Over 2,500 people heard him discuss tyranny, the criminal justice system and politics. Poor sound and a long lecture caused many people to leave within 45 minutes. For those who remained, he discussed euthanasia during a question and answer period.
On September 2, 2009, he appeared on Fox News Channel's Your World with Neil Cavuto in his first live national television interview to discuss health care reform. On September 20, 2009, he appeared at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania to speak to a sold-out audience. Sellers of tickets claimed that all tickets were sold out within 5 minutes of the office opening.
On April 15 and 16, 2010, Kevorkian appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, Anderson asked, "You are saying doctors play God all the time?" Kevorkian said: "Of course. Anytime you interfere with a natural process, you are playing God." Some of the cast of the film You Don't Know Jack (a movie based on Kevorkian's life) including director Barry Levinson, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman were interviewed alongside Kevorkian. Kevorkian was again interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Your World on April 19, 2010 regarding the movie as well as discussing Kevorkian's world view. You Don't Know Jack premiered April 24, 2010 on HBO. The film premiered April 14 at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City. Kevorkian walked the red carpet alongside Al Pacino who portrays him in the film. Pacino was awarded an Emmy for his portrayal, and personally thanked Kevorkian, who was in the audience, upon receiving the award.
Kevorkian has also had two books published since his release from prison. glimmerIQs, a memoir he wrote while in prison, was published in August 2009, and When the People Bubble POPs, published in January 2010, in which Kevorkian wrote about his views on human overpopulation.
Category:1928 births Category:American activists Category:American jazz flautists Category:American pathologists Category:American people convicted of murder Category:American people of Armenian descent Category:American political candidates Category:Armenian activists Category:Critics of religions or philosophies Category:Euthanasia activists Category:Euthanasia in the United States Category:Living people Category:Medical practitioners convicted of murdering their patients Category:People convicted of murder by Michigan Category:People from Pontiac, Michigan Category:University of Michigan alumni
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| Name | Neil Cavuto |
|---|---|
| Caption | Neil Cavuto, 2007 |
| Birth date | September 22, 1958 |
| Birth place | Westbury, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Vice President of Business News (Fox News Channel), Senior Vice President & Managing Editor of Business News (Fox Business Network) |
| Spouse | Mary Fulling |
| Website | Your World at FOXNews.com |
Cavuto also tapes a nightly wrap up of business news which airs on local FOX affiliates during the late news and has a syndicated radio business news segment that airs on weekday afternoons. He is the senior vice president and managing editor of business news for the Fox Business Network, and oversees content and business coverage.
Cavuto is the author of the book More Than Money.
Before joining Fox, he hosted Power Lunch on CNBC and contributed to NBC's Today. He worked with the Public Broadcasting Service for 15 years. He was also a New York City bureau chief.
He has been awarded numerous times by his peers in the journalism industry, including recognition by the Wall Street Journal as the best interviewer in business news, best business television interviewer four consecutive years, and five nominations for Cable ACE awards. Cavuto was also awarded the 1980 Hellinger Award, the highest award for graduating journalism students from Saint. Bonaventure University. Cavuto has Interviewed many high profile business, political and world leaders.
Cavuto is the author of More Than Money: True Stories of People Who Learned Life's Ultimate Lesson (ISBN 0-06-009643-8).
Cavuto has suffered health problems, saying, "I don't hide that I have had a tough life in many respects. I fought back a near-life-ending cancer, only to end up with multiple sclerosis years later. Doctors have since told me that the odds of contracting both diseases in the same life are something like two million to one! Yet here I am, marching on, continuing to do my job when doctors who've examined my scans and MRIs tell me I shouldn't be walking or talking."
Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:American finance and investment writers Category:American University alumni Category:American writers of Italian descent Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:People from Morris County, New Jersey Category:People from Nassau County, New York Category:People with multiple sclerosis Category:New York Republicans Category:St. Bonaventure University alumni Category:Fox Business Network Category:Fox News Channel people
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Anal Cunt |
|---|---|
| Background | group_or_band |
| Alias | AxCx, A.C. |
| Origin | Newton, Massachusetts, United States |
| Genre | Grindcore |
| Years active | 1988–2001, 2003–present |
| Label | Relapse, Earache, Psychomania, Devour, Conquest, Menace to Sobriety, Wicked Sick, Limited Appeal |
| Associated acts | Upsidedown Cross, Adolf Satan, Angry Hate, Cuntsaw, Executioner, Full Blown A.I.D.S., Impaled Northern Moonforest, Insult, Pig Destroyer, Post Mortem, Satan's Warriors, Shit Scum, Siege, Shiran Shiran, You're Fired |
| Current members | Seth PutnamTim Morse |
| Past members | Josh MartinFred OrdonezPaul KraynakScott HullJohn KozikJohn GillisNate LinehanMike Mahan |
They have been categorized as grindcore,
In Q Magazine's 2005 book The Greatest Rock & Pop Miscellany Ever!, Anal Cunt was included in a list of "25 Band Names That Should Have Stayed On The Drawing Board". The band was meant as a joke, and was supposed to only record one demo and do one show; however, they are still active as of 2011, despite several brief breakups.
Originally, the band was to produce a form of 'anti-music', without rhythm, beats, riffs, lyrics, song titles or any other of the normal features of a band, an approach exemplified by the 5643 Song EP.
Yet another tour followed (this time a fortnight-long one with Eyehategod), during which Scott Hull was replaced with John Kozik. After this tour, the band was again close to breaking up (for the second time), but instead decided to change the lineup once more. The problem seemed to be with Tim Morse, so he was kicked out of the band—Seth Putnam was now the only surviving original member of the band.
The band was on hold for a while, the only thing they recorded being a song ("You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side") for the Smiths tribute album The World Still Won’t Listen, with Scott Hull on guitar and Seth Putnam doing the drums and vocals. During this period, Seth Putnam also did backing vocals for Pantera’s The Great Southern Trendkill, in New Orleans, and lead vocals for an Eyehategod show.
Seth Putnam was again tempted to end the band (for the third time), but instead hired a new guitarist, Josh Martin. Martin was a student at New York University in 1994/1995, when Anal Cunt used to play in New York a lot, and they had become good friends. Indeed, this was a friendship that would continue, as Putnam and Martin would join forces later in Adolf Satan and acoustic black metal band Impaled Northern Moonforest. Now, Martin had moved to Boston, following his graduation and was appointed by Putnam as the new Anal Cunt guitarist. After trying out a lot of drummers, they ended up with Nate Linehan.
Yet another tour followed, this time with Incantation and Mortician, and then the release of their next full-length, I Like It When You Die, which they had recorded prior to the tour. This album was essentially a collection of insults and featured the songs "You’re Gay" and "Technology’s Gay", as well as a guest appearance from Kyle Severn from Incantation. A lot of the songs refer to things being ‘gay’, as this was a common slang word in Massachusetts and in junior high schools across the United States at the time.
Following the tour, Linehan left the band and again the band was on hold because of line-up difficulties. Even so, Putnam and Martin recorded a few songs for a Black Sabbath tribute, In These Black Days Volume 1, which was a split with Eyehategod and featured Seth Putnam on drums. A few months later, Putnam asked Nate Linehan to rejoin the band and he agreed.
Another two tours later (one in America with Murder One, one in Japan), Anal Cunt recorded what would be their last album on Earache Records, It Just Gets Worse, which was released at the end of their 1999 European tour with Flächenbrand. This is the most offensive of the band’s albums and was surrounded by much controversy; the label changed some of the song titles and also censored the lyrics to two of the songs. Nevertheless (or probably because of this fact) this is now considered to be a classic cult grindcore album, which was criticized heavily by the general music press but praised just as much by the underground grind community.
In October 2004, Seth Putnam went into a coma for nearly a month as a result of a drug overdose. Initially reported as a sleeping pill overdose for legal reasons, he later claimed it was a combination of alcohol, crack, heroin, and a bottle of sleeping pills. Doctors thought that even if he survived, he would suffer permanent serious brain damage and were intending to "pull the plug", before Putnam's mother intervened. Even after coming out of the coma, Putnam was now paralyzed and had sustained severe nerve damage, needing months of physical therapy to recover. In fact, for the first show that Anal Cunt played following this coma (which was a show with Eyehategod), Seth Putnam had to remain seated in a chair throughout.
Although some thought it was poetic justice, Seth Putnam says he will continue to play songs such as "You're in a Coma" and has promised that the band will release "new" material soon. He confirmed that there will be a new Anal Cunt album, most likely to be released in 2009 due to delays, which was originally to be called Wearing Out Our Welcome, before Putnam changed its title to Assholes and Troublemakers. Anal Cunt also released a Defenders Of The Hate full-length, which features bonus now-out-of-print tracks, such as those from the 13 Bands Who Think You're Gay and Thrash of the Titans compilations, as well as the tracks from Split with Flächenbrand. Other releases that have been promised include a sequel to Picnic Of Love, Picnic Of Love II and an Anal Cunt/Gay Bar split, featuring unreleased Anal Cunt material from the Putnam/Martin/Linehan era on one side and a recording of Seth Putnam in a gay bar on the other.
Anal Cunt performed at the Los Angeles Murderfest Version 3.0 on March 24, 2007. Seth announced on Anal Cunt's myspace page that Tim Morse would be playing drums again full-time for the first time since his departure in 1996. On November 17, 2008, the original Anal Cunt line-up (Seth Putnam, Mike Mahan, and Tim Morse) finished recording their 110 Song CD. The CD was made as a celebration of the band's 20th anniversary. The album's musical style is the same as Anal Cunt's earlier work (47 Song Demo, 88 Song EP, 5643 Song EP, etc.) in the way of the songs having no titles or lyrics and the songs are all blurcore/noisecore.
Another compilation CD of obscure Anal Cunt releases is planned to be released by Wicked Sick Records, (Seth Putnam's label) later in 2009. It is said to include rare releases by the band like the Breaking the Law 7" and the Howard is Bald EP. It will also include very rare never before heard Anal Cunt recordings including the first Anal Cunt demo that was never mixed, songs recorded for compilations that were never sent, and demo recordings, etc.
Their I Like It When You Die developed the idea of containing insults in their songs, with a recurring song title being "X Is Gay", with X being a person, place, thing, idea or event. Examples include: "You're Gay", "Technology's Gay", "Recycling Is Gay", "The Internet Is Gay", "Windchimes Are Gay" and even "The Word 'Homophobic' Is Gay." Another recurring song title is "You X", with examples including "You Own a Store", "You Live in a Houseboat", "You Are an Orphan", "You Go to Art School", and "You Keep a Diary". The band even parodied themselves about this with the songs "You (Fill In The Blank)" and "I'm in Anal Cunt".
The 1999 album, It Just Gets Worse, took the idea of intentional offense a step further with more extreme examples of racism and sexism, which proved controversial, as they covered topics seen as taboo. Examples include: "You Were Pregnant So I Kicked You In The Stomach", "I Lit Your Baby On Fire" and "Women: Nature's Punching Bag." The lyrics to two of the songs on this album were censored and one of the songs on this album had its name changed from "Connor Clapton Committed Suicide Because His Father Sucks" ('his father' being Eric Clapton) to "Your Kid Committed Suicide Because You Suck" because they were working for a record label in Britain, where libel laws are very stringent.
It was also in this album that the band began to joke about the Holocaust in numerous songs, including "I Sent Concentration Camp Footage to America's Funniest Home Videos". This theme of seemingly glorifying Adolf Hitler and his actions continued on their subsequent EPs, with songs such as "Hitler Was A Sensitive Man", "Body By Auschwitz", "I Went Back in Time and Voted for Hitler" and "Ha Ha Holocaust."
Another common lyrical theme in the band's material is that of insulting other bands, as well as music in general.
Next to this offensive material, some of their other songs which are more light-hearted appear even more confusing and hilarious. This includes the satirical Picnic of Love album, and also covers of songs completely different from their style including "Can't Touch This", "Stayin' Alive", "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)", "Theme From Three's Company", "You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side", and "Hungry Hungry Hippos" as well as their bizarre karaoke rendition of the "Steve Miller Band" song "Abracadabra" (with the lyrics changed to "Sabbra-Sabbra-Cadabra") on the split EP with Eyehategod. Other contrasts are provided by the innocent silliness of tracks such as "I Got Athlete's Foot Showering At Mike's".
In one interview, Seth Putnam admitted that they had sent material to publications they knew would hate it, just to get bad reviews.
Category:Noisecore musical groups Category:Grindcore musical groups Category:American rock music groups Category:Musical groups from Massachusetts Category:Relapse Records artists Category:Earache Records artists Category:Musical groups established in 1988 Category:1980s music groups Category:1990s music groups Category:2000s music groups
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