VBVW for June 1, 2007: Sick In America

• The Very Best

The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released in the United States 40 years ago today. One of the great musical milestones of the 20th century, it also set off rumors that Paul McCartney was dead. Considering how things have gone with his dancing wife this past year, he probably wishes he was.

The Feds arrested a man they call one of the top 10 email spammers in the world. While he probably won’t get the death punishment, which he deserves, he will have plenty of time to respond to Nigerian cash scams and unsolicited Viagra ads.

Scientists in Spain are building a cerebellum to give robots better motor skills. The new bots will be better equipped to assist disabled, and the research may yield more clues about treating Parkinsons’ disease. The next step for scientists is to create human-like skin for the ‘bots. Forget benefits for the handicapped — just wait until they rig these things up for porn.

• The Very Worst

Our healthcare system may be in need of its own respirator, but here’s an example of socialized medicine gone very, very wrong. In the Netherlands, desperate patients are allegedly vying for a kidney donated by a dying woman. And here’s the fun part: they’ll be competing on a new Dutch reality program called “The Big Donor Show.” Ooo, don’t you hope the cute one gets it?

The man who flew across the Atlantic twice while carrying a rare, drug resistant strain of tuberculosis in his lungs is the son-in-law of a scientist at the U.S. Center for Disease Control. We have a feeling nothing good is going to come of this.

Wellington, New Zealand energy officials turned off the power of a woman whose electrical bill was $122 in arrears. Her life support system was electrically powered, and she died less than an hour after the lights went out. Sounds like something you only hear about in a short story. Or America.