Floating clinic will offer the sick offshore euthanasia The Guardian

How to E-Mail Like a C.E.O. New York Times Magazine More articles from the “How-to” issue of the New York Times Magazine.

Orwell Would Revel in ‘Collateral Damage’, says communications director of the American-Arab
Anti-discrimination Committee:

Timothy McVeigh, who is scheduled to be executed May 16, has solidified his
position as the poster boy of cold-blooded villainy. The Oklahoma City bomber has
once again outraged the American public when he described the 19 dead children
among his 168 victims as “collateral damage” in an interview.

Although it scarcely seemed possible, this appalling comment has made
McVeigh an even more despised figure in American society. It produced
widespread and justified expressions of revulsion and anger at his lack of regard for
even the most innocent of his victims.

There is no doubt that McVeigh is an exceptionally malevolent and brutal
criminal. Yet the rest of us may not be as distant from his propensity to rationalize
the killing of innocents as we prefer to believe. All too often, good people allow
themselves to believe that the end justifies the means, that “war is hell.” Or they
find some other means to dismiss the deaths of those who did nothing to deserve
being killed.

It is worth recalling where McVeigh got this chillingly antiseptic phrase
“collateral damage.” It was coined by the Pentagon during the Gulf War to describe
the deaths of innocent Iraqis during the massive bombing campaign in 1991 and
was an attempt to obscure and rationalize these deaths through Orwellian jargon.
“Collateral damage” during the Gulf War included, in only one instance, 313
people incinerated at the Amiriya bomb shelter in western Baghdad, which was
deliberately attacked.

When asked about the extent of Iraqi casualties toward the end of the Gulf War,
then-military Chief of Staff Colin Powell blandly remarked: “That is really not a
matter I am terribly interested in.” LA Times

Four psychoanalysts comment on the therapy scenes in this Sunday’s Sopranos:

“My other thought about Dr.
Krakower is that his technique of ignoring Carmela’s defenses
and confronting her right down to her marrow served multiple
functions, not the least of which was ridding himself of a patient
that he didn’t really want to see. As analysts, we always have to
reflect upon the meaning of starting a treatment with telling a
patient how she must live her life and also laying out that they can
expect no help from us for anything short of following through on
our expectation. I’m not saying that we analysts don’t ever
confront; of course we do, but usually only after we have
established a relationship in which a patient feels known and
understood. In my own career and in all of the supervision I have
done with other analysts, when someone does what Dr. K. did,
they are really interested in taking care of themselves. I don’t think
that this is bad; obviously it indicates that this would be an
abysmal therapeutic match, even though it is a great dramatic one.”

“He was certainly a stark contrast to the “moral
relativism” of psychiatry that Jennifer’s husband complains about.
Peggy also raises questions about why Jennifer would pick him as
the analyst to whom she refers Carmela. Since he was her
teacher, she must have known that he would take the kind of
hard-line, moralistic approach that we saw. Could she have even
guessed that he would tell her to leave Tony? If so, was Jennifer
unconsciously disposing of her rival? Was this a
countertransference enactment in that sense? All of you noted the
problem with telling Carmela what to do after one session. It
reminds me of the cartoon about managed care that features
one-session therapy: The therapist says to the patient, “Whatever
you’re doing, stop it!” Dr. Krakower knows that dispensing this
kind of advice is not going to work because he knows that
Carmela has complicated reasons for staying involved with Tony.
Despite his lamenting that psychiatry has become a kind of
victimology, his message to Carmela seems to be that she is a
victim of Tony and the only solution is to remove herself from the
victimizer.” Slate

College admissions essays focus on Columbine. “The massacre at Columbine High School two years ago this month penetrated the psyche of American
teenagers in much the way John F. Kennedy’s assassination or astronauts walking on the moon did for their
parents’ generation.

The very word Columbine is shorthand for a complex set of emotions ranging from anxiety to sadness to
empathy. Nowhere is this knotted mix of feelings as clear as in the essays young people write as they apply for
admission to college.

From New Jersey to Virginia to Texas, Columbine is cited as life’s defining moment.” College admissions officers are considering asking applicants to write about something else already. Philadelphia Inquirer

Euthanasia Bill debated in Netherlands. Further evidence that the “We Deliver!” sensation was a hoax; the legalization of euthanasia is just now being debated. Nando Times

Violent TV Shows Wipe Out Memory of Commercials: “While there is growing concern about
the effects TV violence has on children, the bloodshed and mayhem
continues–in large part because advertisers want to reach the
under-34 crowd that watches violent programs. But new research
suggests these advertisers are shooting themselves in the foot.

Violent shows seem to make people forget they ever saw the
commercial breaks, according to a review of 12 studies published in
the April issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Across the studies, which included about 1,800 individuals, people
were less likely to remember sponsors’ brand names and advertising
messages when they viewed violent programs than when they
watched violence-free shows.” Reuters

Mountain Gazette returns. This monthly eco-literary magazine had a great
run between 1972 and 1979, when it published such noted authors as
Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, and George Sibley. I was a charter subscriber, devoured every issue, and cried in my beer when it folded. The newly resurrected
Mountain Gazette is a grassroots effort by a former contributing editor at Backpacker and a former editor of The Aspen
Daily News who drive all over the
Rockies and the Sierras to deliver the newsprint-stock magazines. A reader explains:

‘What’s most appealing about the Gazette is its refusal to pander to the
Mountain Dew generation, with its Xtreme sports mentality that shouts, “Get
out of my way.” The Gazette fosters an anti-Xtreme mind-set. Several hundred thousand mountain
lovers have already read enough magazine stories about 20-year-olds
kayaking off 100-foot waterfalls.’

Study challenges ‘crack baby’ phenomenon: “The ‘crack
baby’ phenomenon is overblown, according to a
study that suggests poverty and the use of
cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs while
pregnant are just as likely as cocaine to cause
developmental problems in children.

Blaming such problems on prenatal cocaine use
alone has unfairly stigmatized children, creating
an unfounded fear in teachers that ‘crack kids”
will be backward and disruptive, according to the
study, an analysis of 36 previous studies.” SF Gate

Egyptian ‘Islam Line’ profits from religious advice. “In this country, where people consult their religion several times a day for guidance, authoritative
answers can be as hard to find as Pharoanic treasures entombed in the Giza pyramids. But a new
24-hour hot line called Islam Line makes it as easy as picking up the phone.

Islam Line has been so successful since its August launch that the owners plan to expand to the rest of
the Arab World, and eventually to Europe and the United States. Just last month it became available to
mobile-phone users in Jordan.

The hot line, dubbed ‘Dial-a-Fatwa,’ averages 300 callers a day from men and women of every age and
social class. Callers simply dial a number and leave their questions on a recording. Within 24 hours they
can call, punch in the number designated for their question, and listen to the answer. The phone service
is staffed by six highly respected, moderate clerics trained at Al-Azhar, a thousand-year-old university
that’s considered the cradle of Islamic learning.” The Nando Times

“Long-term users of ‘ecstasy'(methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA]) tend to experience memory impairment, according to a study reported in the April 10 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of
Neurology.

Fifteen MDMA users, ranging in age from 17 to 31, participated in the year-long study. Participants of the study took the drug an average of
2.4 times per month. The testing regimen included measures sensitive to intelligence and every day memory functioning.

Over the period of one year the test scores either declined or kept static, but did not improve. …For example, the ability to recall a story after a brief delay declined by approximately 50
percent between the first and second assessments. The drug affects the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with learning and the
consolidation of new memories.”EurekAlert!

Researcher finds retroviral ‘footprint’ in brains of people with schizophrenia; “…strongest evidence yet that a virus may contribute to some cases
of schizophrenia.

In this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, (Johns Hopkins) Children’s Center neurovirologist Robert Yolken, M.D., and his colleagues report
the molecular “footprint” of a retrovirus in the cerebrospinal fluid of about 30 percent of people with acute schizophrenia and about 7 percent of
people with a chronic form of the disease. The footprint was absent in the brains and cerebrospinal fluid of all people who did not have
schizophrenia. ” EurekAlert! The study was conducted at Johns Hopkins’ Stanley Neurovirology laboratory, which focuses on “the elucidation of the role of infection and immunity in the etiology of schizophrenia and bipolar
disorders.”

New research finds that vitamin treatment brings dramatic improvements for one form of the rare neurological disease, hereditary ataxia.

Spying From Space: U.S. to Sharpen the Focus

Anyone wondering where U.S. military investment is
headed need look no farther than the next generation of spy
satellites that are being built now and will start going into orbit
in 2005.

The estimated 20-year price tag is $25 billion, making this
program the most expensive venture ever mounted by U.S.
intelligence services. In comparison, the Manhattan project, the
World War II crash program to build the atomic bomb, cost
$20 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.

For its money, Washington expects to get a new system of
electronic cameras that can be trained on potential trouble spots
anywhere on the planet on a couple of hours’ notice or less. It
will be “an incredible improvement” in America’s ability to spy
from the sky, a U.S. official said in Washington. He said the
satellites would be able to track objects as small as a baseball
anywhere, anytime on the planet.

European nations argue that the EU ought to put up its own network of spy satellites to prevent reliance on US data. Germany has been vocal about the exposure of its troops in the Balkans to needless risk because of inadequate access to US intelligence data. International Herald Tribune

German Threat Raises Infowar Fear. Germany’s Interior Minister suggests that the German government resort to denial-of-service attacks against U.S. and other foreign right-wing websites promoting hatred and encouraging the growth of German neo-Nazism. Wired

Cypherpunk’s Free Speech Defense. Update on Jim Bell‘s first day of testimony at his Tacoma, Washington trial for “internet stalking.” Declan McCullagh’s coverage places Bell’s actions squarely in the same boat as the “Nuremberg Files” website (as I discussed last month, recently exonerated of fomenting violence by posting the names and personal details of doctors who perform abortions). Wired

Japan’s pet-friends: “The Japanese economy may be heading back
into recession, but one line of business is doing
very well despite the economic gloom.

Pet shop owners are
enjoying a bonanza as
the Japanese turn to
dogs and cats as an
antidote to all the
stress they are
suffering.” Dog owners travel more than an hour by train to get to a park where, for $12, they can let their dogs run free off the leash. A special housing complex — where the elevator has a warning light to tell others when a dog is on board — caters to pet owners in a country where most apartments forbid pets larger than a hamster. And, if the problems of ownership appear insurmountable, you can rent a dog for the equivalent of around $4 per outing. BBC