Postmodern Nursing. The essayist contends that the nursing profession is still mired in not having found a way to integrate humanistic compassion and scientific rigor.

Retired Navy Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll voices his alarm, in an LA Times opinion piece, that We Are Taking a Detour From Deterrence.

The U.S. Senate is preparing to take a major step to abandon all pretense that U.S. nuclear

forces exist only to deter war. An amendment to the pending Defense Authorization Act for

2001 would lead to the development of a new nuclear weapon designed expressly for

fighting.

The new weapon is to be a low-yield device with earth penetration capability, intended to

destroy deeply buried bunkers.

“…Not only is the Senate’s action a throwback to those unlamented days of preparing to

prevail in nuclear war, but it also is a flagrant repudiation of a solemn pledge the United

States made in May at the Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York. We

joined with Britain, France, China and Russia in a commitment to accomplish the total

elimination of nuclear arsenals, leading to nuclear disarmament.

Senator Paul Wellstone seeks State Dept. investigation of Colombian death squad activity tied to Colombian military. President Clinton last week signed the bill providing hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance to Colombian government counter-narcotics efforts. Wellstone has previously tried and failed to shift $225 million from this appropriation to domestic substance abuse rehabilitation efforts.

Human Rights Watch sees a pattern behind the recent Philadelphia police brutality case — of excessive police force in subduing suspects after high-speed chases. “Several officers in the Philadelphia videotape were clearly attempting to stop other officers

from hitting and kicking Jones. Those officers deserve recognition for behaving in a

professional manner, Human Rights Watch said.”

Animal Protection Institute meets Ringling Bros. Circus’ arrival in LA with thirty anti-circus billboards. “When you buy a ticket to the circus, the animals pay the price. People mistakenly believe

that animals aren’t mistreated in larger circuses like Ringling Bros.,” said Dena Jones,

Program Director for the Sacramento-based Animal Protection Institute. “Unnatural living

conditions, brutal training methods, and a stressful life of travel are common to all circuses,

regardless of size. We’re placing the billboards to remind people that the only humane

circuses are those that don’t use animals.”

Death without dignity. “…recent evidence suggests that attempts at

physician-assisted suicide often meet with unexpected

complications. What’s more, almost no one in the medical

community is doing anything about it…Doctors are apparently hungry for information. Steven Heilig,

director of the Bay Area Network of Ethics Committees, an

umbrella organization for the region’s hospital ethics

committees, recalls a meeting at which two physicians from

the Netherlands gave a presentation on the Dutch system of

physician-assisted suicide: ‘Someone asked a clinically

specific question — I think it was about dosage — and this sea

of pens suddenly emerged, poised to write down everything

they said.’ ” Salon

An interesting proposed solution to cybersquatting that seems to make sense. The Register

The useful Spike Report from the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review points us to the public relations nightmare surrounding a news photo of NY governor Christie Todd Whitman frisking a black suspect with glee during a 1996 ride-along with state police in Camden. The New York Times editorialized about her gaffe last week:

The man she frisked had apparently already been

searched by the troopers for weapons and drugs and then

handed over to the governor. The man had not been accused

of any crime.

… the fact remains that the posed look of the photograph

and Mrs. Whitman’s smiling expression add up to the

appearance of a gratuitous insult. The controversy over the

photo may also help explain why Mrs. Whitman has had so

much trouble putting the political problem of racial profiling

by New Jersey state troopers behind her.

Richard Stallman likes this apocryphal letter to Dr Laura [via Gulfstream].

I mused the other day about getting a guest editor when I’m gone for parts unknown for three weeks at the end of the summer. Now I find, reading Rebekah Allen’s blorg (“Come for the nipple. Stay for the content”), that she’s tapped beebo.org‘s Michael Stillwell while she’s away in Madagascar. [Beebo does some useful weblog statistics and ratings, BTW.]

A thoughtful article on weblogging, and not just because, after the author interviewed me at length, his description is complimentary: “It’s just slightly hyperbolic to say his

weblog is akin to a newspaper edited by Oliver Sacks.” (And I had never mentioned to him that Sacks is one of my pleasures in life.) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Check Your Freedom at the Front Door: CNET’s “list of your top ten legal nonrights on the web.”