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September 6, 2006
The Human Element - Illinois' Unique Health-Care Crisis
Today former Illinois governor George Ryan was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail for obstruction of justice and corruption. Ryan's lawyers asked for a light sentence due to their client's ill health, claiming that the maximum ten-year term would amount to a "death sentence".
I've lived in Illinois for over 50 years, and I've noticed that every time a prominent Illinois politician is convicted of a crime he immediately gets sick and has to be given early release or a reduced sentence. Because so many Illinois politicians get convicted of crimes, this conviction sickness is a serious and expensive problem for our public health-care system.
I think it is very unlikely there is some virus or bacterium that specifically targets politicians. Instead, there is probably a gene that is triggered by external stimuli, much like the defense mechanism in some bacteria that is triggered in the presence of antibiotics. Therefore, it stands to reason that if we could make DNA mappings of top-level Illinois politicians and also of ordinary people who actually have to serve their jail sentences, we could use the signature genes tool developed for the NMPDR project to compare the DNA and isolate the gene responsible for conviction sickness.
Anyway, I think this is a really good plan, so if you live in Illinois, please call your state representative and senator and suggest they put aside some money in next year's budget to implement this plan. It will require some heavy initial outlays, but I think in the long run, we'll all benefit. After all, if George Ryan knew he might be facing a full ten years of hard time when he got caught, he might have thought twice before ordering a cover-up of the bribes-for-licenses project.
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