Free Republic

A runaway cow that avoided captivity for weeks died Thursday after it was caught and put on a truck to be taken to a farm, a local official said. The red Limousin beef cow fled Jan. 23 as it was to be transported to a slaughterhouse. It gained celebrity status as it defended its life and freedom, tricking searchers, swimming from island to island and roaming a lake-filled region near Nysa, in southwestern Poland.

BATESVILLE, Ark. (AP) - Sheriff's deputies said a man used horse tranquilizers to try to drift off into sleep at a Batesville motel. Deputies said the man was taken to the hospital around 6 p.m. Tuesday. Inside his room, deputies said they found syringes and three bottles of horse tranquilizers. Deputy Anthony Carter said the man told him he used the drugs as many as five times that day to help him go to sleep.

As far back as the 1970’s, shortly after the feminist movement was launched, it was estimated that as many as 30 million American women were taking tranquilizers. That was almost half of the female population at the time. In 1975 alone, more than 103 million prescriptions for tranquilizers were written. By the 1980’s, prescription levels had spiked again. Women throughout Europe and North America were prescribed about twice as many psychotropic drugs as were men. Many of these drugs were taken long-term. In the case of the “minor tranquilizers” (technically, benzodiazepines such as Librium, Valium, Mogadon, and Ativan), continued use...