Woman pregnant twice — ‘An Italian woman is due to give birth in a hospital in Rome this week to a baby girl – before returning three months later to have triplets.
If both deliveries are successful, it is thought that this will be the first such case in history.’ BBC
For those who share my interest in art brut (‘outsider art’): The Mystery Gallery: ‘Van Freeman decorated his rented home with crosses and biblical mosaics, then vanished. What will happen to his work?’ Los Angeles Times
In Minnesota, “… a man arrested for shoplifting hundreds of dollars worth of Nicorette gum claimed he was recruited to steal the stuff so it could be sent to Pakistan to aid terrorism.“
America: Think of It as a Brand Name
Osama bin Laden is the greatest brand manager in the world. He has a niche product with limited appeal, a relatively small budget and limited distribution. Yet his Al Qaeda brand has 100% unaided awareness and is gaining share in a market segment that we should own: decent Islamic men and women in Kuwait, Egypt, Nigeria and even the U.S. Los Angeles Times
Why ‘Gilligan’s Island’ and ‘The X-Files’ Hold the Key to America’s Global Reach
Paul A. Cantor is a strange creature: a conservative professor of English at the University of Virginia who specializes in Shakespeare, loves pop culture and is flat-out funny (he once referred to Mel Gibson’s “Hamlet” as “Lethal Bodkin”). In his new book, Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization, Cantor examines four of his favorite television shows–“Gilligan’s Island,” “Star Trek,” “The Simpsons” and “The X-Files”–and explores how they speak to America’s understanding of its place in the world. Cantor is a proponent of a thoughtful conservatism that should be interesting to liberals and instructive for conservatives, for he has the courage to say out loud that not everything on television is dross and that some of it is not only entertaining but significant as well. Los Angeles Times
British Prime Minister Has ‘No Doubt’ of bin Laden’s Guilt NY Times. Haven’t we been reading news items similar to this around every week since Sept 11th? Doth the lady protest too much?
“Literally you are taking out a screwdriver and a pliers and a clippers and you are taking it apart in the reverse process of putting it together.”Where Warheads Are Made, and Where a Good Pair of Pliers Can Put Them to Rest NY Times
I love it! Coming back to this page after 24 hrs. away, it seems you are starting to use the ‘comments’ facility. Thank you, and keep it up.
Perhaps it was like this even before 9/11, but lately it seems as though every guy in every plane I’ ve been on is reading either a Tom Clancy novel, or one or another book by flag-waving historian, Stephen Ambrose. The hot sellers at the airport bookstores, and indeed bookstores in general, are tales of wartime heroism, with retrospectives on World War Two and the so-called “Greatest Generation” leading the pack.
This bodes well for the Bush Administration, which needs the public to continue thinking about victory and the triumph of good over evil (a constant in Ambrose’s history offerings and Clancy’s provincial spy stories), especially as the war on Afghanistan drags out, and weeks go by with no terrorists “brought to justice.”
Listening to commentators and everyday folks discuss the current war in Central Asia, one gets the distinct impression that Americans are in fact desperate for another “greatest generation.”
Tim Wise deconstructs the WWII analogies. AlterNet
Adbusters Magazine‘s annual anti-consumerist call for a Buy Nothing Day on the day after Thanksgiving runs headlong into post-nine-eleven patriotic shopping exhortations (“Shop While the Bombs Drop”) , polarizing its readers.
New Harrison Song A Telling Sign? — ‘When it comes to music, apparently, George Harrison isn’t afraid of “knock-knock-knockin’ on heaven’s door.”
Harrison, 58, who was reported to have undergone more cancer treatment for a brain tumor in New York recently, has recorded his first song since radiotherapy. It’s part of musician Jools Holland’s new album, and the song’s publishing credit is RIP Ltd. 2001.’ Thje Boston Channel
A Yugoslav journalist’s advice to US media: ‘Jasmina Teodosijevic-Ryan is a broadcast journalist with an extensive background in Yugoslav media, and served as an analyst for the United Nations Liaison Office in Belgrade’:
“How and when does journalism become propaganda? As a writer, broadcaster and media analyst from the former Yugoslavia, I have observed the process first-hand. It starts slowly, then spreads like a stain.” Tompaine.com
Heard on my local NPR station one day last week: “One morning late this summer, Turners Falls
poet Patricia Pruitt woke up and wrote a poem full of abstract, disturbing,
apocalyptic images. She says she has no idea what prompted her to write it, but she didn’t think too
much about it until she found the poem again in late September. Suddenly,
those strange images had an almost eerie significance in the post September
11 world.”
Attempt
August 28, 2001
The last mark
the red mark
was decisive
It oblit....(O don't say
obliterated again.)
START OVER
The last mark
the red mark
was decisive
It hit walls
and sidewalk
It fell from
helicopter
propellers
dripped out
of concrete into
the bulldozer's maw
it became the sole
color
day and night
A kind of red weather
and.. (Not and. Not decisive. It was not
decisive.)
START AGAIN
The last mark
the red mark
created red weather
Day and night
It was the sole color
A sort of rain
or fog
envelopping cafes
Graves everywhere
No one could make it STOP
Not the ones with power
The ones without STOP
we're or were helpless
roofs in the dark...
START OVER
The hard thing
can't be held
or tied down,
turned off or
on This red
weather eludes
helicopters
floats alone
out of reach
As roofs
ones with
ones without
START AGAIN
The last mark
Red walls
sidewalks slid
into concrete maw
Rooves cafes powerless
ones with
ones without
can't be held
tied down
It floats everywhere
helpless STOP
NOT HELPLESS NOT POWERLESS
start over
The ones with
the ones without
can't be held
or tied down
turned off or on...
Good. Stop There.
“A struggle for the soul of the 21st century”: ‘Conservatives blasted former President Clinton for this Nov. 7 Georgetown University speech, after a Washington Times story said Clinton called Sept. 11 the “price” the U.S. had to pay for its misdeeds. Here is the full text of Clinton’s speech.’ Salon
Study says touch-tone phone systems could be used to help detect callers’ dementia
Automated touch-tone phone answering systems could help screen older callers for early signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, researchers say.
In a study of 155 patients, a touch-tone system identified warning signs in 80 percent of patients who had been diagnosed with mental impairments by their doctors. It also gave passing grades to 80 percent of patients diagnosed as normal.
The results appear in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.
Participants were given recorded instructions such as “Spell ‘fun’ on the touch-tone pad,” and “Press ‘1’ if the following sentence makes sense: ‘We wanted to cut down the tree in the yard so we went to the garage to get a hammer,”‘ said psychologist James Mundt, a research scientist at Healthcare Technology Systems Inc. in Madison, Wis., and lead author of the study. SF Chronicle
William Safire: Prague Connection: Czech counterintelligence has revealed it was tracking Mohammed Atta as he met in Prague in April, 2001 with the Iraqi consul to the Czech Republic; their assumption is that the consul was trying to recruit Atta to blow up the headquarters of Radio Free Europe, whose ideological influence on the Iraqi opposition apparently irks Saddam Hussein. But Safire prefers to believe Iraq was assisting Atta with his Sept 11th plans. Not only what they talked about, but whether the Czechs informed American intelligence agencies at that time, remains in question. Safire explains that Saddam’s assistance might have been incognito, as ObL has no high regard for the Iraqi regime but it would be in Saddam’s interest to facilitate an attack on the US. Safire also mentions “an unpublished report” suggesting that Saddam facilitated a leading Iraqi physician’s trip to minister to ObL in Afghanistan in May, 2001.
In other coverage of Iraq, Defectors Tell of Kuwaitis
in Secret Jail in Baghdad: “Two Iraqi
defectors, veterans of the country’s
intelligence service, say they worked in a secret
site outside of Baghdad where 80 Kuwaitis
captured during the 1991 war were detained in
an underground prison.” One of the defectors, who had befriended several of the prisoners despite strict orders not to fraternize and to refer to them only by number, provided names of four detainees which Kuwaiti officials have confirmed are among the missing from the Gulf War. NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]
One of a series of ‘songs for the City’ written for the New York Times Magazine:
‘Laurie Sadly Listening’ by Lou Reed
Laurie if you're sadly listening
The birds are on fire The sky glistening
While I atop my roof stand watching
Staring into the spider's clypeus
Incinerated flesh repelling
While I am on the rooftop yearning
Thinking of you
Laurie if you're sadly listening
Selfishly I miss your missing
The boundaties of our world now changing
The air is filled with someone's sick reasons
And I had thought a beautiful season was
Upon us
Laurie if you're sadly listening
The phones don't work
The bird's afire
The smoke curls black
I'm on the rooftop
Liberty to my right still standing
Laurie evil's gaunt desire is
Upon we
Laurie if you're sadly listening
Know one thing above all others
You were all I really thought of
As the TV blared the screaming
The deathlike snowflakes
Sirens screaming
All I wished was you to be holding
Bodies frozen in time jumping
Bird's afire
One thing me thinking
Laurie if you're sadly listening
Love you
Laurie if you're sadly listening
Love you
Editorial: Active euthanasia and physician assisted suicide should be legalised British Medical Journal [via EurekAlert]
Bin Laden: “Yes, I did it” Telegraph UK
Oh, no, Kesey is gone at 66. New York Times obituary
“As I’ve often told Ginsberg, you can’t blame the President for the state of
the country, it’s always the poets’ fault. You can’t expect politicians to
come up with a vision, they don’t have it in them. Poets have to come up
with the vision and they have to turn it on so it sparks and catches hold.”–Ken Kesey
Web woos Nessie — ‘Fans of the Loch Ness monster who hope to catch a glimpse of the legendary creature could be in luck thanks to a moving Webcam now filming the murky depths of the Scottish lake.’ globetechnology.com
Better Killing through Chemistry: ‘Buying chemical weapons material through the mail is quick and easy… “It’s a cinch” to obtain off-the-shelf chemicals needed to make sarin nerve gas, as Scientific American editor George Musser found out.
Study reveals self-esteem inflation among US kids: ‘According to the report, in a recent issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review, self-esteem among America’s youth in general and college students in particular has been on the rise for the past 30 years. Meantime, societal indicators that these feelings are warranted, such as higher SAT scores and lower rates of teen pregnancy, have not kept pace with attitudes.’ Self-esteem ‘based on nothing,’ as the study’s author puts it, sets people up for disappointment. ‘(He) blames the trend on the self-esteem movement in schools, which teaches children slogans and affirmations such as “I am lovable and capable.” ‘ Reuters Health
Terminally ill patients spend too much time alone with few visits from medical personnel or family members, researchers report. Reuters Health
Call for Action – Safeguard Communications Privacy:
Journal issues treatment guidelines: ‘Anthrax infection became part of doctors’ daily repertoire yesterday as the world’s most influential medical journal published detailed guidelines on diagnosing and treating the deadly bacteria.
Doctors are now expected to consider anthrax as a possible cause for the thousands of skin lesions and flu-like symptoms they encounter every day.
The guidelines [link lead to .pdf of article –FmH], published yesterday on the New England Journal of Medicine‘s Web site, are based on close study of the 17 Americans stricken with the disease in recent weeks.
…”Most physicians haven’t ever seen a case of anthrax. [The article] was to bring people up to speed in a medical sense,” said the article’s author, Dr. Morton Swartz of Massachusetts General Hospital’s department of medicine.’ Boston Globe
U.S. Army gassed the turnpike in ’50s
For two decades, from 1949 to 1969, the federal government conducted biological warfare experiments without warning in locations stretching from the New York City subway to San Francisco Bay. Instead of a deadly germ, the Army used dust or bacteria that were thought at the time to be harmless.
But some of the substances ultimately turned out to be not so harmless after all – with one death and 10 additional cases of pneumonia or related infections often blamed on a fog spewed over San Francisco in 1950. Philadelphia Daily News
New York wildlife group calls hunting a terror threat. Protesters call for the suspension of New York State’s hunting season this year; ‘aghast that being armed and disguised in camouflage is legally permitted in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hunting “is just a wonderful opportunity for someone who would want to do a terrorist act,” (Anne Muller of Wildlife Watch) said. “They don’t have to report their whereabouts and can be lurking anywhere. They can lurk in groups.” ‘ Fox News
Charles’ ‘attacker’ could get 15 years: ‘The schoolgirl who slapped Prince Charles round the face with a flower faces a draconian 15-year sentence for her protest.’ This is London
Orlando Sentinel columnist says: America needs a briefing consolidation: ‘There will be hell to pay if, in the process of trying to topple an extremist Islamic government in Afghanistan, we inadvertently install one in Pakistan, which has a fine army and nuclear weapons. That?s why the president of Pakistan is urging us to move fast. He knows that the longer the bombing campaign goes on, the stronger the opposition will grow.
Unfortunately, the picture emerging in Washington is one of confusion. One day the Pentagon says that we bombed Red Cross food warehouses a second time by mistake and that central command is investigating to determine how the mistake was made. The next day the central command says we bombed the warehouses on purpose because the Taliban is stealing the food. Don?t the joint chiefs know what the central command is doing? Apparently not.’
Red Cross Collected Unneeded Blood — too much to store; thousands of pints of blood collected after the emergency, perhaps 1:5 of the pints collected overall, will be destroyed now they’re reaching the end of their shelf life. Washington Post
Police state: A coalition of liberals and conservatives begins to coalesce around disquiet about the absurdly-named USA PATRIOT — “Uniting and Strentghtning America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” — (honest!) Act.
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, one of only three Republican lawmakers to buck the House leadership and the Bush administration to vote against this legislation, is outraged not only by what is contained in the antiterrorism bill but also by the effort to stigmatize opponents. Paul tells Insight, “The insult is to call this a ‘patriot bill’ and suggest I’m not patriotic because I insisted upon finding out what is in it and voting no. I thought it was undermining the Constitution, so I didn’t vote for it ? and therefore I’m somehow not a patriot. That’s insulting.”
Paul confirms rumors circulating in Washington that this sweeping new law, with serious implications for each and every American, was not made available to members of Congress for review before the vote. “It’s my understanding the bill wasn’t printed before the vote ? at least I couldn’t get it. They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote.”
And why would that be? “This is a very bad bill,” explains Paul, “and I think the people who voted for it knew it and that’s why they said, ‘Well, we know it’s bad, but we need it under these conditions.'” Meanwhile, efforts to obtain copies of the new law were stonewalled even by the committee that wrote it. Insight Magazine
King of Jordan calls for all-Arab deal with Israel: ‘The Arab world must be prepared to offer a collective guarantee of Israel?s security and integration into the Middle East in return for the setting up of a Palestinian state, King Abdullah of Jordan told The Times yesterday.’ Times of London
Why Trade Center Towers Stood, Then Fell — ‘Exactly which failure began the sequence — which occurred under extraordinary conditions never envisioned in the buildings’ design — remains a matter of intense debate. Some analysts hold that too much evidence was destroyed in the collapses to say for certain.
But a leading theory has emerged as teams have sifted through the wreckage, examined photographs and videos and run computer simulations on aspects of the disaster. Many engineers now believe that relatively lightweight steel trusses holding up the reinforced concrete floors sagged in the heat and failed first when the connections that held them to the tightly spaced palisade of steel columns on the outside of the buildings gave way.’ NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]
Britain placed under state of emergency Observer UK
Britain placed under state of emergency Observer UK
“Sheep may be brighter than we think.
According to British scientists, they probably experience some degree of emotion and could even be capable of conscious thought. [So… referring to us as a “nation of sheep”, as has been fashionable in certain sociologically but apparently not ethologically astute circles since William Lederer’s seminal book by that name in the ’50’s, actually is disparaging… to the sheep?? -FmH]
This astonishing verdict is based on the ability of sheep to remember old faces, be it a member of the flock or even a shepherd.
Sheep may be capable of using the same system (as humans) to remember and respond emotionally to individuals in their absence…
New studies have revealed that sheep can remember up to 50 sheep faces as well as familiar human faces, such as their shepherd.” BBC
Fathers urged to bath baby: ‘Babies who miss out on regular baths by their father are more likely to grow up with social problems, a survey has revealed.” BBC
Why Are Deep Thinkers Shallow About Tyranny? NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]
FBI Press Briefing on linguistic and behavioral analysis of the anthrax letters by the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. We now have a catchy media-friendly title and a glitzy logo for our anthrax alarm — look at the web page. By the way, could the perpetrator have been a weblogger?? To wit:
He may have exhibited significant behavioral changes at various critical periods of time throughout the course of the Anthrax mailings and related media coverage. These may include the following:
- Altered physical appearance.
- Pronounced anxiety.
- Atypical media interest.
- Noticeable mood swings.
- More withdrawn.
- Unusual level of preoccupation.
- Unusual absenteeism.
- Altered sleeping and/or eating habits.
Today’s New York Times op-ed columnists suggest aspects of Bush Administration (or, after Counterpunch, “Bush Dictatorship”) cluelessness:
“Disingenuous official claims
of our allies’ strengths and
our enemies’ weaknesses
will come back to haunt the
administration if all does not
go smoothly.”
“George W. Bush has not yet
understood what a wartime
president has to do at home:
Put aside ideological politics
so he can be president of all
the people.”
Bin Laden Has Nuclear Arms, He Tells Paper — ‘A leading
Pakistani newspaper published an interview with Osama
bin Laden today in which he said, “We have chemical and
nuclear weapons as a deterrent and if America used them
against us, we reserve the right to use them.” ‘ He declined to answer an interviewer’s question about how and where he had obtained the weapons.
(A)sked… if he could justify the deaths of “innocent
people,” including hundreds of Muslims, in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on
the United States, Mr. bin Laden called this a “major point of jurisprudence,” replying that,
“America and its allies are massacring us in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir
and Iraq. The Muslims have the right to attack America in reprisal.” He
said, “The Sept. 11 attacks were not targeted at women and children. The real targets were America’s
icons of military and economic power.”Mr. bin Laden blamed the “entire America” for “anti-Muslim policies.”
“The American people should remember that they pay taxes to their government, they elect their
president, their government manufactures arms and gives them to Israel and Israel uses them to massacre
Palestinians,” he said.Late in the interview, Mr. bin Laden allowed that “there are many innocent and good-hearted people in
the West.” But, he said, “The Jewish lobby has taken America and the West hostage.”
[US analysts, while recognizing that bin Laden has made efforts to acquire nuclear materials, consider it unlikely that he has succeeded. How much can we rely on such assurances, especially in the face of such a convoluted reasoning that would rationalize and propel their indiscriminate use?]
Ananova, admittedly one of those more sensationalistic British media sites, goes further:
Bin Laden may have shipped nuclear bomb to US: “Osama bin Laden may have already shipped weapons of mass destruction to the US.
Pakistan’s Frontier Post says the Al-Qaida network has transported nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons there.
It claims at least two briefcases containing nuclear weapons may have reached US shores.
The report says Pakistani and US investigators have been able to identify that at least one such weapon has been acquired by Al Qaida from Central Asian groups.
The device of Russian origin, can be activated through a timer or cell phone command.”
Pakistani Leader Seeks ‘Gestures’ for Backing U.S.. In the face of a general strike over Pakistani support for the US (oops! “coalition”) war effort, (which he deflected neatly by declaring yesterday a Pakistani national holiday to explain widespread business closings — which, to be fair, may have been in fear of rather than support of fundamentalist rioters), Musharraf wants us to resume fighter sales withheld after Pakistan developed nuclear weapons. Pakistan has felt, he articulated, that until the recent “war on terrorism”, the US had cold-shouldered Pakistan after the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from its invasion of Afghanistan had diminished Pakistan’s usefulness to the US as a strategic partner. Other gestures “should include
major debt relief, military assistance, and more understanding for the
sensitivity of the Pakistani public on the issue of its nuclear weapons.”
With the Northern Alliance’s reported capture of Mazar-i-Sharif, the US may be able to set up forward bases there with a lifeline to Uzbekistan to the north, and may again need to rely less on Pakistan for support of the war effort. NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]
Iran’s Leader Says Muslims Reject bin Laden’s ‘Islam’, After a videotaped message from bin Laden denouncing the UN and branding Islamic leaders who participated in it as ‘infidels’, Iran’s President Mohammed Khatami, in New York to address the General Assembly, agrees to first interview with a Western newspaper since he assumed office in 1997. Although he faces an uphill battle in creating an anti-terrorist image of Iran (branded a major exporter of terrorism by the US State Dept for its support of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah), he held up his country as evidence that an ‘Islamic republic’ model can a role model and condemned the portrayal of Islam as a religion of anti-Western hatred. In a significant concession, he said Iran would respect the wishes of the Palestinian people with respect to the recognition of Israel. NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]
Agency Looks Into Claim Doctor Had Skin Anthrax: ‘Should the case of the cardiologist, Dr. Gerald M.
Weisfogel, turn out to have been anthrax, it
would be of considerable interest to investigators.
It precedes the first batch of anthrax letters that
was sent out on or around Sept. 18 and would
indicate a new and earlier source of exposure.’
In other anthrax news, ‘Postal
investigators said today for the
first time that other mail containing anthrax
bacteria was probably sent here last
month in addition to the one letter that has
been found, the one sent to the office of
Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
“We’re thinking there may be one more
letter and maybe more than one,” said
Kenneth Newman, the deputy chief postal
inspector for investigations.’ NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]
British Take a Blunter Approach to War News. The New York Times contrasts American and British press coverage, finds a “wider scope” and “less defensive tone” in the latter, “an essential supplement to (American) tunnel vision”. [via randomWalks]. In contrast, rc3 points to a Trevor Butterworth article in Salon Premium suggesting that British journalistic standards are lower than at major US papers because they have to attract readers in a more highly segmented and competitive market. ‘No facts, please — we’re British…
Americans are flocking to feisty British papers for news about the war. But there’s a reason the U.S. media fails to follow up on the Brits’ “scoops” — they’re frequently not true.’
Hanan Ashwari: ‘It’s time for U.S. to broker Mideast peace’. ‘(The) longtime Palestinian leader and spokesperson for Yasser Arafat called Monday on the United States to immediately broker a peace settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Asserting that the unresolved plight of the Palestinians was “one of the major causes of extremism in the world,” she asked, “How do we move beyond the pain of the moment towards an American involvement that is positively intrusive?” (She also) ‘… tells Osama bin Laden he does “not have the right to use” the Palestinian plight “for your ends.” ‘ Salon
Officers kill militia voice; deputy shot. ” William Milton Cooper, 58, whose apocalyptic, constitutionalist shortwave radio programs were a major influence on Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, was shot to death after Cooper shot and critically wounded an Apache County sheriff’s deputy who had tried to arrest him, officers said.” Via the null device, which adds that Cooper’ “is perhaps best known for popularising the greys/MJ-12/alien-contactee world-government conspiracy mythos, and was an influence on the likes of X Files creator Chris Carter.”
Robert Fisk: Hypocrisy, hatred and the war on terror
: ‘So why on earth are all my chums on CNN and Sky and the BBC rabbiting on about the “air campaign”, “coalition forces” and the “war on terror”? Do they think their viewers believe this twaddle?”Independent UK
‘Tourist Guy’: Is He or Isn’t He?: ‘After the Sept. 11 attacks, the tourist guy became the subject of dozens of doctored photographs. Inspired by the original picture that put him at the WTC attacks, Web surfers quickly turned him into the Forrest Gump of the Internet, placing him at the scene of major, minor and just plain inane events in history.’ Wired
Splits open in UK-US alliance Private frustration expressed by gov’t ministers “…over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the bombing strategy; perceived lack of US consultation with its allies; and insufficient US focus on the humanitarian crisis… There is also rising anxiety within Whitehall that after Afghanistan the Bush administration may turn its sights on Iraq.
Mr Bush said on Wednesday that the bombing of Afghanistan was just the start of the war on terrorism.” Guardian UK
Tactics readied for a smallpox fight. A centers for Disease Control conference, with many of the infectious disease experts who participated in the effort to eradicate smallpox more than twenty years ago, has pulled together a protocol to deal woth an outbreak scenario. The CDC will make the plan public in 2-3 weeks after final revisions by public health officials around the country. The controversial — and perhaps unworkable — aspect of the plan is to vaccinate not only the ring of people who had come in contact with an infected individual or individuals, but to identify and vaccinate a second ring — those who had come into contact with the first circle of people. CDC officials say it is essential. Boston Globe
Meanwhile, the Shrub administration seems intent on vaccinating the entire populace. HHS Sec’y Tommy Thompson is pushing pharmaceutical companies to gear up manufacture of smallpox vaccine to have enough on hand for everyone. Shrub revelaed during yesterday’s visit to the CDC in
Atlanta that he is considering making the immunization program compulsory Times of London, despite the fact that hundreds would likely die from the vaccinations themselves.Smallpox immunization ended in the US in 1972; studies vary on whether those vaccinated 30 years ago would have any lingering protection against new exposure. The last naturally occurring case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977, although two English laboratory workers were infected with smallpox in 1978 after an accidental exposure. Current stockpiles of smallpox virus are known to exist only in the US and the former Soviet Union.
WTO: Splinter Groups Breed as Activists Fracture — ‘Activists worldwide are hosting solidarity protests this weekend against the World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar. The demonstrations are occurring under the shadow of a zero-tolerance policy taken by European and American security officials since the Sept. 11 attacks. But activist groups are under greater threat from internal rifts, which may lead to the formation of a more violent anarchist faction.’ StratFor
The ‘war on terrorism’ is a war on freedom (ours): U.S. Will Monitor Calls to Lawyers: Most egregious action yet by Ashcroft; I agree with stunned defense attorneys who have characterized this as a blatant assault on constitutionally guaranteed right to counsel and a “terrifying precedent.”
The Justice Department has decided to listen in on the conversations of lawyers with clients in federal custody, including people who have been detained but not charged with any crime, whenever that is deemed necessary to prevent violence or terrorism.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft approved the eavesdropping rule on an emergency basis last week, without the usual waiting period for public comment. It went into effect immediately, permitting the government to monitor conversations and intercept mail between people in custody and their attorneys for up to a year at a time. Washington Post
Equally frightening, this proposal, which has been mentioned before but now appears to enjoy the support of the heavyhitters of the airline industry, represents a step toward an all-encompassing central database:
The airline industry on Thursday formally called for a massive screening system that would subject passengers to intensive background checks, providing a boost to one of the more controversial security ideas under discussion since Sept. 11.
Under the Air Transport Assn. proposal, all reservations would be checked against a new government database that would include arrest records, intelligence information, immigration files and financial data. This master database, constantly updated, would be used to identify individuals who merit closer screening at the airport. LA Times
The CIA is gaining sweeping new centralized authority over intelligence gathering, in a proposed reorganization:
(A) presidential panel prepared to recommend an overhaul of U.S. intelligence agencies. The plan would consolidate often disparate and competing spy resources under the stewardship of the CIA director, officials said.
The panel, expected to deliver its recommendations to President Bush next month, would give the CIA new authority over spy satellites and electronic intercepts, officials said.
The CIA chief would gain control over three large military intelligence agencies that now are part of the Defense Department, according to a U.S. official familiar with the draft proposals.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agencies include the National Security Agency, which oversees electronic intercepts; the National Reconnaissance Office, which designs and operates intelligence-gathering satellites; and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, which interprets satellite photos and creates military maps.
And the FBI is going to be recast on a (permanent?) war footing, Ashcroft assures us. New York Times
London urged to give Dome to New York: “The troubleshooter brought in to rescue the Millennium Dome urged Tony Blair last night to give the structure to New York to conceal the horrors of the salvage operation at the World Trade Centre site.” The Times of London
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor under President Carter: A New Age of Solidarity? Don’t Count on It: “Is it, therefore, the dawn of a new age, born in the ruins of the World Trade Center and the exploding bombs in Afghanistan? A closer look justifies a great deal of skepticism. The solidarity is genuine, but it is a solidarity more of words than of deeds. Moreover, the underlying realities of power have not been changed… There is no Europe as such that is joining America in its long-term campaign; individual European states are doing what they can… While Putin was sympathetic, it is still an open question whether Russia has made a historic choice in favor of the West or is seeking to exploit America’s preoccupation to extract specific concessions… In the Middle East there is nothing even remotely resembling the anti-Iraq coalition of 1991.. In brief, the “coalition” against terrorism does not even share a common definition of the threat…” Washington Post
“They digitize, we scrutinize”: Fox comes up for contemptuous reactions after its broadcast coverage of the World Series included the insertion of “virtual billboards”, set against the backstop, advertising the network’s other fare.
London’s Harry Potter world debut, two weeks ahead of the US opening, through the eyes of the Washington Post‘s TR Reid, who reserves special praise for Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid. I just found Coltrane a memorable presence in From Hell (to which, unlike Harry, I did not take my children, needless to say…) as well. [via randomWalks]
Great media news tidbits courtesy of the null device. First, the New York Daily News gossips about a doomsday tape Ted Turner reportedly had made for CNN to show if it was ever determined the world was about to end.
Turner, it seems, has been a doom-and-gloom kind of guy from the very day in June 1980 when he launched the cable network. He said then, as only he could, “We gonna go on air June 1, and we gonna stay on until the end of the world. When that time comes, we’ll cover it, play ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee,’ and sign off.”
Keeping with the eschatological theme, when Disney recently acquired Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Family cable to add to its ABC family, along with the deal came a contractual obligation to air Pat Robertson’s 700 Club in perpetuity “(or until the Rapture, whichever comes first)”, as MarketWatch puts it.
Murdoch could well be included on Robertson’s blacklist of people who pollute popular culture, but he didn’t often pop up by name.
Disney, on the other hand, has been publicly blasted from Robertson’s electronic pulpit on various occasions. Among its sins, he believes, are its gay-friendly employment policies and its tolerance of gay and lesbian celebrations at its Orlando theme park. The latter were even supposed to bring down fires, floods and pestilence (or at least butterfly ballots) on the good people of Florida.
Straw’s diagnosis is subjected to re-examination. Letters to the editor of the
Guardian take exception to the British foreign secretary’s characterization of ObL yesterday as a “psychotic and paranoid.” No joke, from my perspective as a psychiatrist, to say that this is insulting to my patients.
“Oprah Winfrey recently withdrew her selection of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections for her book club. What did Franzen do to get dropped?” The Onion
Is there anyone left who doesn’t believe that the US bungled the Oct. 20th commando raid in Kandahar, the first highly touted ground assault of the “war”? [Or that Pentagon spokes lie through their teeth in their briefings about this? About other aspects of the military effort?] Read Seymour Hersh’s account here The New Yorker He’s been all over the media following up on this story — interviewed on CNN on Monday and NPR’s Morning Edition today. The Guardian corroborates Hersh’s findings (largely based on his American military informants) from Pakistani sources:
The debacle, which saw US Delta Force soldiers come under intense fire from the Taliban, prompted a review of special forces operations in Afghanistan and seems to have led to a delay in similar behind-the-lines operations.
The ferocity of the Taliban resistance caught US commandos unawares and showed that 13 days of bombing had failed to break the Taliban’s morale. It sparked a debate in the Pentagon on the advisability of such missions in the absence of clear intelligence.
Soon after the October 20 raid, the US switched its military strategy, throwing its weight behind the opposition Northern Alliance and relying on it to provide ground troops for the campaign.
The day after the raid the Pentagon hailed the operation a success that proved that US forces could strike anywhere at any time, in the manner of their choosing.
But, in fact, no one in American command counted upon the speed and intensity of the Taliban response. Both Hersh and the Guardian suggest the leadership of Gen. Tommy Franks, an artillery officer apparently enamored of the doctrine of warfighting via overwhelming force who commands the US war effort, is in question. Or will he be a convenient fall guy for a more pervasive failure of American military doctrine? like the same one we made in losing the Vietnam War a generation ago? It should be noted that US military spokespeople, e.g. on Sunday’s Meet the Press, dispute this account, insisting there was only “light resistance” and a “planned extraction” instead of a “hasty retreat”.
Cheryl Seal: Bush nominees may spell beginning of the end for the Environmental Protection Agency: ‘This past week, Bush quietly nominated two people to EPA posts — so quietly in fact that the only place you’ll probably see it is here. And with good reason. These two nominees make it painfully obvious that Bush wants to convert the agency into a big hollow barrel he can fill with corporate pork.’ Unknown News [via Booknotes]
“…the fact that Ecstasy is a hot commodity among some teen-agers should not impede research.” FDA approves first clinical test of Ecstasy since drug was criminalized: ‘Researchers have gained government approval to test the drug “Ecstasy” as a treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder for the first time since the drug was criminalized in 1985.
The decision was made this week by the Food and Drug Administration and marks a shift for the agency, which has virtually banned the drug from researchers for more than a decade.’ San Francisco Chronicle A proposed study at the Medical College of South Carolina is being funded by MAPS (the Medical Association for Psychedelic Studies), which advocates therapeutic use of hallucinogens (More properly, Ecstasy or MDMA has been described as an “entheogen”.) Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, responds, “I know of no evidence in the scientific literature that demonstrates the efficacy of Ecstasy for any clinical indication.” [Uhhh, could it be, Mr. Leshner, that the research would have to be done before the results would appear in the literature?]
Welcome to the era of drive-by hacking. ‘BBC News Online has been shown just how lax security is on wireless networks used in London’s financial centre.
On one short trip, two-thirds of the networks we discovered using a laptop and free software tools were found to be wide open.
Any maliciously minded hacker could easily join these networks and piggy back on their fast net links, steal documents or subvert other machines on the systems to do their bidding.’
I was sent this link to the AndGor Toy Company, which will make your own personalized action figure from your photo, by a reader who says he thinks of it as the “analogue equivalent” of yesterday’s ‘Phizzheads’ post. [thanks, Miguel]
The Mathworld site is back after a year in which Eric Weisstein’s consummate mathematical resource was kept offline by an intellectual property dispute with his erstwhile publisher. [thanks, Abby]
An FmH reader says I’m wrong about what I called “moral relativism” in my post yesterday about torture:
I don’t think this constitues moral relativism. Relativism is a doctrine
that rejects the possibility of mediation between competing moral
frameworks, a doctrine that often leaves its proponent with an ‘to each,
his own’ blandness. To the relativist, there is no such thing as the Right
for any given situation. However, the above-referenced discussion about
torture proceeds from a distinct moral framework, a crude
pragmatism, which holds that morality (Rightness) is not a feature
of acts but a feature of the consequences of those acts. A
consequentialist says that it’s Right, absolutely, to kill one to save
many, a relativist says that there is no such thing as absolute Right and
Wrong. The philosophical term for the system you wish for, one in which
there are acts that are absolutely right or wrong, regardless of their
consequences, is called deontologism or imperativism. If you’ve got a
four-man lifeboat with five people, the consequentialist says it’s right
to kill one to save four, the deontologist says it’s wrong to kill,
period, and the relativist says that there is no trustworthy way to judge
Right and Wrong.
In related news, Alan Dershowitz says that consideration of unthinkables such as “truth serum and turture warrants” ought to be on the table at this juncture.
Harvard Ass’t Prof of Philosophy James Pryor: How to Write a Philosophy Paper
…pretend that your reader is lazy, stupid, and mean. He’s lazy in that he doesn’t want to figure out what your convoluted sentences are supposed to mean, and he doesn’t want to figure out what your argument is, if it’s not already obvious. He’s stupid, so you have to explain everything you say to him in simple, bite-sized pieces. And he’s mean, so he’s not going to read your paper charitably. (For example, if something you say admits of more than one interpretation, he’s going to assume you meant the less plausible thing.)
Dave’s Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar: I can’t use this, since I shun M$ Internet Explorer, but it otherwise sounds very useful.
All N.J. Anthrax Cases Said Linked — ‘Contaminated mail that passed through a regional mail processing plant
in Hamilton Township, near Trenton, appears to be the common thread in
all seven infections in New Jersey, said Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, the state’s
epidemiologist.
That finding eases fears that other, unknown sources could have
contributed to the state’s anthrax outbreak. Bresnitz said any mail
contaminated by the anthrax-laden letters had probably been received
and opened, and any other infections caused by that contamination
probably would have surfaced by now.’ NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]
The next three blinks courtesy of Spike Report:
Michael Kinsley: TV News Killing Our Precious Verbs Washington Post
‘Forget bear attacks, avalanches and giant ants. The real danger in trekking around the great outdoors is abduction. That’s right, abduction by aliens is probably the leading cause of outdoors people disappearing from off the face of the planet. But since abducted humans seldom leave a trace, this problem has gone largely unreported.
The fact that this country has been infiltrated by aliens has been well documented by many of the supermarket tabloids. But how can you know if that person next to you in the checkout line is human or an alien? How can you be sure? What about your spouse?
Up until now there’s been no sure way to differentiate a human from an alien cleverly disguised as one, so identifying the aliens (humanoids) among us (July 1995, page 39) has been pretty much a guessing game. So you can imagine our excitement when we received a call about a newly developed and affordable UFO Detector (the older models designed for military use were waaay out of our price range). Would we want to test one? Hey, is our name Popular Mechanics?’
Trouble by the truckload: a threat that has drawn scant attention Why the nation is ill-prepared to deal with a favorite weapon of Islamic terrorists. US News & World Reports
Black Blocs for Dummies: the publisher of the popular and often inane ‘…for dummies’ series of books doesn’t like this tongue-in-cheek anarchist primer.
“Q: Does one have to wear black to be in a black bloc?
No. Black is the color of anarchism, which is why we call it the “black” bloc. Many anarchists take this so far as to wear black, but the wearing of the black during a black bloc has more to do with anonymity than it does with being a fashion statement.”
Chicago cracks down on dangerous dogs… actually, on their owners: ‘Chicago dog owners who allow their pets to run wild will face $300 fines and up to six months in jail, and $10,000 penalties if the dog goes on the attack.
Owners of dogs subsequently declared ”dangerous” will also be required to have their dogs spayed or neutered, have an identifying microchip injected under the animal’s skin and obtain $100,000 in liability insurance within 10 days of the designation.’ Chicago Sun-Times
Phizzheads: send this company front and side views of your face and they’ll make you a fully animatable 3D digitization of your head that can be plugged into the latest 3D games, text messages. etc.
Child’s Play Dept: Etch-a-Sketch Art Gallery and Bible stories rendered with Lego characters
Biology and crime — ‘Numerous studies have shown a link between antisocial, violent crime and low serotonin metabolism in offenders. But researchers have not been able to explain why processing of this essential neurotransmitter was lowered in these individuals. Is it that serotonin?s uptake is inhibited by receptors on neurons, or is the cause found further up the metabolic chain in a possible excess of serotonin?s metabolic precursor, free L-tryptophan?
Enter scientists from the University of Kuopio, Finland….’
Worst of both worlds: “Being born of uncertain gender is the last sexual taboo. But why is the truth about ‘intersex’ so often kept from the patients themselves? … It is not as unusual as you might suppose, and according to some medical experts is becoming more common.” Sunday Times of London
‘The morning my copy of Steven Johnson’s Emergence arrived, I also took delivery of my quarterly copy of Journal of Consciousness Studies with the theme “Emergence” boldly etched on the cover. The latest issue of this new periodical is taking no prisoners in its effort to extend the frontiers of emergence, ranging from the innermost recesses of the human brain to the outer reaches of cosmos. Is consciousness an emergent property? Is mind an emergent property? Is God an emergent property?’ Sunday Times of London books
ACLU Action Alert: Keep Customs Officers Accountable!: ‘Legislation being considered by Congress after the September terrorist attacks continues to revolve around the misguided perception that giving expanded, unchecked authority to those who enforce our laws will necessarily make us safer. A prime example is the new, “Customs Border Security Act” (H.R. 3129), a bill originally meant to deal with U.S. Customs employee wage issues, which now includes provisions that would weaken protections against racial profiling, other illegal searches, and undermine the right to privacy in personal correspondence.’ One click will urge your Congressional delegates to oppose giving Customs officials free reign and opening the door to widespread racial profiling.
AIDS myth fuels S. Africa’s child-rape scourge: ‘South Africa is in shock over a surge in the rape of children and even babies, fuelled by a myth that sex with a virgin will protect a man against AIDS, activists said on Monday.” Reuters
New HIV subtype may be tougher to treat: CDC: ‘US government scientists have identified a new class of HIV that could give rise to infections that are resistant to the drug AZT and potentially thwart the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy in some patients.’ Reuters
Pill ‘may blunt sexual urge’ — ‘Smell is thought to play an important role in sexual attraction
Women taking the contraceptive pill may find themselves less responsive to the very smells which attract them to men, say researchers.
The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, measured the ability of women to detect distinctive smells such as musk – while taking and not taking the Pill.’ BBC
Torture Seeps Into Discussion by News Media: ‘…(A) growing number of voices in the mainstream news media (are) raising, if not necessarily agreeing with, the idea of torturing terrorism suspects or detainees who refuse to talk.’
Some human rights advocates say they do not mind theoretical discussions about torture, as long as disapproval is expressed at the end. But they say that weighing the issue as a real possible course of action could begin the process of legitimizing a barbaric form of interrogation.
Journalists are approaching the subject cautiously. But some said last week they were duty-bound to address it when suspects and detainees who have refused to talk could have information that could save thousands of lives. Plus, they added, torture is already a topic of discussion in bars, on commuter trains, and at dinner tables. And lastly, they said, well, this is war.
NY Times [via Abby]
It seems the discussion contemplating torture is couched entirely in moral relativistic terms, of considering the acceptability of acts no matter how heinous if one can frame them as preventing even greater evils. Are there no courses of potential action that cross some absolute line of incompatibility with whatever remains of our humanity?
And then there’s this, from Geov Parrish:
Does anybody in this country get it?
Does anybody understand what the United States is on the verge of doing?
Experienced, respected food aid organizations warn that even before the bombing of Afghanistan began on October 7, some 7,500,000 Afghans were — through a gut-wrenching combination of poverty, drought, war, dislocation, and repression — at risk of starving to death this winter. When the bombing began, almost all delivery of food from the outside world stopped. Now, roads and bridges are destroyed, millions more people are dislocated, and the snow is steadily approaching from higher elevations and from the north.
For weeks, aid organizations, along with voices from throughout the region, have been begging the United States to call off its bombing campaign, at least for long enough so that aid agencies can conduct the massive transfer of food into and throughout Afghanistan that is necessary to prevent death on a scale the world has not seen in a long, long time. On our newscasts, it’s politely referred to as a “humanitarian crisis.” That’s a euphemism that makes “collateral damage” seem humane.
Seven and a half million people at risk of dying in a matter of months. That’s three times the number of people Pol Pot took years to kill. Thirty-five times the number that died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, combined. If 5,000 died on September 11 (a number that reports are now suggesting is vastly inflated), we’re talking the equivalent number of deaths to ten World Trade Centers, every day, for 150 days. Slow, painful deaths. Entirely avoidable deaths. Deaths whose sole cause is not the United States, but most of which can still be prevented — except that the United States is refusing to allow them to be prevented.
It repulses me to say this, but I suspect a lot of Americans don’t care. They’d rather see the United States “get” Osama bin Laden (though there’s no actual evidence that we’re any closer to that today than we were two months ago, and probably the task is harder as he becomes more popular and protected). A lot of people in this country do not care that a staggering number of innocent people are on the verge of being condemned to death, or that most of the world will blame the United States. Correctly. workingforchange [via AlterNet via wood s lot]
The calls for renewal of a military draft have begun. Washington Post Here’s a Google search that will inform about conscientious objector status, as I said in September. Perhaps now is the time to begin passing the information on to your draft-age friends and family?
CIA recruited cat to bug Russians. Is the 4/11/01 dateline of the article close enough to 4/1 that we should have trouble believing it? From the celebrated ex-CIA informant Victor Marchetti.
…Marchetti, a former CIA officer, told The Telegraph that Project Acoustic Kitty was a gruesome creation. He said: “They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that.”
Mr Marchetti said that the first live trial was an expensive disaster. The technology is thought to have cost more than £10 million. He said: “They took it out to a park and put him out of the van, and a taxi comes and runs him over. There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead.” [thanks, David]
Declan McCullagh fleshes out the Green Party story about which I wrote yesterday on his mailing list. He points to a different version of the Nancy Oden story. “[Oden] was grounded at Bangor International Airport on Thursday after reportedly becoming uncooperative when she was targeted for additional screening…” Bangor Daily News He notes that a Green Party press release contains no evidence to buttress Oden’s claim that she was singled out before even arriving at the airport for her political views. ethere are suggestions that she does in fact have a background of association with ecoterrorism. InstaPundit
A former National Guardsman wrote to McCullagh:
“I would be very surprised if there is not another side to this story as well. Most National Guard enlisted soldiers have barely heard of the Green Party let alone would know who a Maine party leader was, what she wrote in a local paper, or would care.
The National Guard units of Maine, like National Guard units in every other state, are on a very steep learning curve regarding how to manage airport security. It is not a duty that National Guard units routinely trained for before Sept. 11 except for those Guard and reserve units involved in Civil Administration. The National Guard soldiers will make plenty of mistakes, including big ones, along the way. Members of Guard units come from all civilian occupations and it is not impossible that a few might have voted for Green Party candidates in 2000. But to start a myth that every local activist is being targeted by the National Guard for his or her political views is just plain silly.
As long as they are not carrying box cutters or pose a threat to other passengers, no one cares if Green Party officers fly to their heart’s content from Bangor to Bute (sic).”
Another reader pointed out that the Green Party USA is a splinter group in opposition to the Green Party of the United States, and may be trying, through publicizing the Oden incident, to draw attention to itself. [A disclaimer: not claiming to know anything independently about the Green Party’s (or Parties’) internal politics…]
One of my cold war heroes is gone. R.I.P Paul Warnke ‘…who has died aged 81, was a Cold War arms negotiator and, as President Jimmy Carter’s director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, among the first government figures in America to support reductions in nuclear arsenals.
He was well known as a “dove” before he joined Carter’s administration.’ Telegraph UK [via dangerousmeta]
Bill Moyers:
This Isn’t the Speech I Expected to Give Today:
‘…(T)his is their game. They’re counting on your patriotism to distract you from their plunder. They’re counting on you to be standing at attention with your hand over your heart, pledging allegiance to the flag, while they pick your pocket!
Let’s face it: they present citizens with no options but to climb back in the ring. We are in what educators call “a teachable moment.” And we’ll lose it if we roll over and shut up. What’s at stake is democracy. Democracy wasn’t cancelled on the 11th of September, but democracy won’t survive if citizens turn into lemmings. Yes, the President is our Commander-in-chief, and in hunting down and destroying the terrorists who are trying to destroy us, we are “all the President’s men”-as Henry Kissinger put it after the bombing of Cambodia. But we are not the President’s minions. If in the name of the war on terrorism President Bush hands the state over to the energy industry, it’s every patriot’s duty to join the local opposition. Even in war, politics is about who gets what and who doesn’t. If the mercenaries in Washington try to exploit the emergency and America’s good faith to grab what they wouldn’t get through open debate in peace time, the disloyalty will not be in our dissent but in our subservience. The greatest sedition would be our silence.’
Read the whole thing. [via CommonDreams]
“The universe wants to play. Those who refuse out of dry spiritual greed & choose pure contemplation forfeit their humanity–those who refuse out of dull anguish, those who hesitate, lose their chance at divinity–those who mold themselves blind masks of Ideas & thrash around seeking some proof of their own solidity end by seeing out of dead men’s eyes.”
— Hakim Bey, The Temporary Autonomous Zone
US mum over performance of combat UAVs — “The United States has acknowledged the first deployment of its new combat unmanned air vehicles.
But neither Pentagon officials nor military commanders will assess the performance of the UAVs during the current offensive in Afghanistan.”
Take the bin Laden Halloween mask off the anthrax threat Boston Phoenix
Missing Person: Where’s Dubya when it comes to addressing the nation about the anthrax threat?
Compare what Bush has been talking about over the last few days to what everyone else has. Last Thursday a State Department employee contracted inhalation anthrax, and deadly spores were found at the CIA and the Supreme Court, where all nine Justices have been put on doxycycline and sent to deliberate across town. That day, Bush spoke at an elementary school, where he urged students to make pen pals with their counterparts in Arab countries. (Remarkably, Bush’s one new initiative in the midst of the anthrax mailings will assure that the country is flooded with letters from the Middle East addressed in children’s handwriting.)…
Clinton aides used to wake up in the morning thinking of how to inject the president into whatever the country was talking about. The more disciplined (or rigid) Bush team, by contrast, figures out in advance what the president should be talking about, and doesn’t let intervening events get in the way. Problem is, at a time of overwhelmingly bad news, they’ve decided he’s a good-news guy. The New Republic
Flight 93 shot down? ‘Recent news sources have reconfirmed the possibility that the hijackers of Flight 93 intended to ram the plane into the Three Mile Island nuclear facility, a mere 15 minutes from the crash site, and that instead of plummeting into the ground on its own, Flight 93 was actually shot out of the air by U.S. fighter jets.
As the Sunday Times of London reported on October 21, 2001:
“[Flight 93] then made a series of sharp turns before going into a steep descent. Aviation experts say that at this point there were three nuclear power stations between the plane and Washington and directly in its line of flight: Three Mile Island, Peach Bottom and Hope Creek.”
“Investigators cannot understand why the plane would have descended so early, unless its intended target was much nearer than Washington. The descent could have been an error by one of the hijackers, but if so, they cannot understand why the plane did not then climb again once control was regained.” ‘ Much circumstantial evidence is listed — jets were known to have been scrambled that morning; Pennsylvania witnesses reported fighters nearby and there is a report that air traffic controllers noted multiple blips on their screens; one passenger calling from the flight reportedly noted an explosion before the plane went down; the debris field was quite wide, suggesting a midair breakup… Seattle Independent Media Center
“It will be a cold day in hell before I vote for anything he’s sponsoring. He has lost any credibility in the House that he ever had.” House GOP says McCain will pay for ‘humor’: ‘Angered by Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) gibes at the House, some House Republicans warned last week that they will never again support his proposals…
House members’ ire was triggered by McCain’s recent appearance on the David Letterman show when he ridiculed House members as “real profiles in courage” and folks who “head for the hills” after the House shut down because of the anthrax scare while the Senate stayed in session.’ The Hill
Minor Annoyances and What They Teach Us — this is the article Phil Agre had just written when the terrorist attacks occurred. He shelved it then as trivial, in the scheme of things, but he of all people is entitled to decide that we can afford to return to petty annoyances as well as the big ones already. Here’s the ‘table of contents’ of his rant; I’m sure some of these will leave you shouting “Yes!” or at least swearing under your breath:
Part I. Dysfunctional Institutions
(1) U2
(2) Starbucks
(3) The “New Report Out Today” That Isn’t On the Web
(4) Untraceable Spam
(5) Cell Phone Companies’ Service “Plans”
(6) Ritual Humiliation of People Who Ask Questions at Public Talks
Part II. Abuses of Language
(7) Business Jargon in Government
(8) Trend-Mongering
(9) The Language of the Staff in Computer Stores
(10) Op-Ed Columns That Make No Sense
(11) Left-Wing Discouragement and Disempowerment
(12) “Generation X”
(13) Subscribers Who Irrationally Flame Me Out of Nowhere
(14) People Who Write Me Snippy Little Notes Saying “Unsubscribe”
Part III. Cliches
(15) The Fake Little Laugh That Screams “Bad Acting”
(16) The Word “Aggressive” Used As If It Were a Good Thing
(17) Anything Called “The Insider’s Guide”
(18) Being Told “I’m Sorry You’re Having Problems”
(19) The “Thoughtful Executive” Cliche in Business Ads
(20) Stereotyped Rhetorical Questions in PR Jargon
(21) Advertisements That Say “Over 43” When They Mean “44”
(22) Meaningless Technical Phrases on Consumer Electronics Gear
(23) “We’re Being Asked to Do More With Less”
Part IV. Bad Design
(24) Bad Information Design in Scholarly Books
(25) Computers That Can’t Learn What Needs to Be Swapped In
(26) Dryers in Commercial Laundromats
(27) Useless Rubber Buttons on Remote Controls
(28) Air Intake Vents Next to the Loading Dock
(29) Hotel Minibars
(30) Value-Added Marketing
Pakistan panics over threat to arsenal: ‘Fears of fundamentalist upheaval in Pakistan have aroused concerns in Washington that part or all of Islamabad’s arsenal of nuclear weapons may have to be moved to China for safekeeping from foreign attack.
Pakistan’s military establishment was said last week to have been shaken by reports that America, India or Israel might be planning pre-emptive strikes on nuclear sites to prevent weapons falling into fundamentalist hands. “The generals are panic-stricken,” said one Pakistani source.’ Sunday Times of London
