Happy birthday to Janis Joplin, January 19th, 1943 — October 4th, 1970.

Goodbye Digital Democracy… “The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the public airwaves and media providers, is poised to make a number of important, if not historic decisions on media ownership and monopolies.” An interview with Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy who monitors the FCC closely. Tompaine.com

Many people — for example, Craig at BookNotes — are keeping their finger on the pulse of the Enron scandal. I haven’t had the heart to follow it in detail, mostly because I think it’s so much business as usual. As a matter of fact, there doesn’t seem to be much notable news around in the past couple of weeks at all. Part of this is — I’m not sure if this is my imagination, but I’ve observed it in past years as well — there seems to be a lull in world doings for awhile after New Year’s, as if everyone slows down for a moment and takes a collective deep breath to face the twists and turns and bumps in the road ahead. It may also turn out that life during wartime — this perennial, unwinnable ‘war against terrorism’ in which security concerns are the pretext for every authoritarian move the Administration wants to make — is going to turn out to be just featureless longhaul drudgery.

In addition to the system makeover that’s been going on at my house, this has probably been one reason my blogging activity dropped off — you must’ve noticed? — in recent weeks. I’ve always been cynically unsurprised by the contemptible business of politics, until the theft of the Presidential election and then the terrorist attacks jarred me out of my complacent notion that there was nothing worth writing about in that sphere of life. Longtime FmH readers will remember haughty, superior vows I made at times in the past not to discuss politics too much. Maybe I’m coming back to my senses (grin) again…

In a related item, how much has business as usual changed since Sept. 11th? The Bush’s and others of their ilk would have you believe that events have brought the nation together and that more people want to “be-all-that-they-can-be”, but the numbers don’t support it. Washington Post And if you had any doubts about this being a kinder and gentler America, think again. Chicago Sun Times The Shrub, Inc. people would also have you believe that they have been successful in crafting an enduring, lofty international alliance against terrorism. You must’ve noticed already that this is largely a shifting fiction of spin and convenience. Now we may be heading for our Waterloo with even the most stalwart Western European ‘allies’, in Guantanamo Bay. Guardian UK And the Saudis may ask for the US exit soon too. Washington Post

The only stimulating aspect of the Enron affair would be if it were any kind of significant embarrassment to ‘Skunk’ Cheney, but don’t hold your breath. He’s been able to keep the proverbial, perennial low profile on the pretext of security demands since the fall. BookNotes, again, avows that

“…on Feb. 2, Dick Cheney will emerge from his bunker. If he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of war in Afghanistan…”

and, to be sure, three more years of corporate giveaways (by the way, did you realize that the net worth of Bush’s cabinet members is ten times that of their predecessors? the public i), and daily news reports that the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden are still not known. Here’s Cursor‘s take on it:

Also via Cursor: The US seems to want it both ways on our hunt for bin Laden.

By the way, in light of my reemergent dialogue with Dan Hartung, I feel compelled to offer at least a halfhearted apology for my continuing cynicism and pessimism. Perhaps it’s like Pascal’s wager — hedging my bet if I turn out to be wrong? Here, BTW, is what former Suck editor Tim Cavanaugh has to say about the “warblogs” (at the USC Annenberg’s Online Journalism Review):

Shine on, you crazy bloggers! Someday the rest of us will hold our manhoods cheap that we did not blog with you this day. But as long as courage lives and liberty endures, every American will be proud to have you out there, blogging for an audience of none.

Researchers find definitive proof that repetitive head injury accelerates the pace of Alzheimer’s Disease Science Daily; Studies show how speed exacts toll on brain Psychiatric News; Study links early adult head injuries to depression years later NY Times

What Comes After Welfare Reform? Two authors from the Center on Hunger and Poverty at

Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management suggest — novel idea — that we consider ways to ensure economic security for all Americans.

The reauthorization debate is the domestic policy opportunity of the near future, but it will be a lost opportunity if it devolves into an argument over whether this or that element of the 1996 changes succeeded. No honest analyst should feel good about discussing the minutiae of an economic security policy that clearly has not been a credible success. Reauthorization will also be a lost opportunity if it focuses only on the poor to the exclusion of other low-income working families, or even the conditions of tenuously “middle class” families. The upcoming debate offers a tremendous occasion to focus the nation and its leaders on the needs that all households have for a meaningful chance to achieve economic well-being, and it can start a discussion that one day results in a new domestic framework with asset-building policy as its common core. An asset policy framework appeals to fundamental values: opportunity, choice, personal responsibility, fairness, and social responsibility. Boston Review

OxyContin Prescribers Face Charges in Fatal Overdoses

Moving against what law enforcement officials say is a boom in “pill mills,” prosecutors are charging doctors with murder or manslaughter in the deaths of patients from overdoses of prescription drugs, including the powerful painkiller OxyContin.

In a Florida courtroom this week, Dr. James Graves went on trial on manslaughter charges stemming from the overdose deaths of four people for whom he had prescribed OxyContin and other drugs; next month in a California state court, a similar case is to begin against Dr. Frank B. Fisher. Last year, Florida prosecutors charged Dr. Denis Deonarine with first-degree murder in connection with a fatal overdose.

Legal experts said it was extremely rare for a doctor to be charged with murder or manslaughter because of their prescribing practices. Doctors accused of improperly dispensing drugs have usually been charged with fraud or with illegally prescribing controlled substances.

Related:
Few States Track Prescriptions as a Method to Bar Overdoses (December 21, 2001)

Maker Chose Not to Act to Reduce Abuse of OxyContin (August 13, 2001)

The Alchemy of OxyContin: From Pain Relief to Drug Addiction (July 29, 2001)

NY Times