“Jewish groups worry the latest claims of ‘war’ against Christmas will fuel anti-Semitism.” (The Jewish Week via walker) Of course, at present, Jews are in particular danger of being accused of usurping Christmas spirit, since the first night of Hanukkah happens to coincide with Christmas Eve night this year.
Daily Archives: 19 Dec 05
Testing Drugs on India’s Poor
“The days of the Raj are long gone, but multinational corporations are riding high on the trend toward globalization by taking advantage of India’s educated work force and deep poverty to turn South Asia into the world’s largest clinical-testing petri dish.
The sudden influx of drug companies to India resembles the gold rush frontier, according to Sean Philpott, managing editor of The American Journal of Bioethics.” (Wired News)
In case you wondered, John Le Carré’s Constant Gardener is more prescient than fanciful. Only the location has been changed (to protect the innocent??).
Is this an impeachable offense?
Bush Vows to Continue Domestic Surveillance: “President Bush today repeatedly defended his decision to let the government conduct, without court warrants, domestic spying operations aimed at American citizens and U.S. residents suspected of having terrorist ties, and demanded congressional approval of the USA Patriot Act before it expires on Dec. 31.” (LA Times)
South America shifting left, away from U.S.
Among the other colossal failures of the Bush dysadministration, he will surely be remembered as the president [can’t bring myself to use the honorific capital letter in his case, you must have noticed — FmH] who alienated the Western hemisphere as well as the Islamic world. (San Jose Mercury News)
Fiddling-While-Rome-Burns Dept. (cont’d.)
2005 May Be Warmest Year Ever: “In the high Arctic, deep in the Atlantic, on Africa’s sunbaked plains, climate scientists are seeing change unfold before their eyes. In the global councils of power, however, change in climate policy is coming only slowly.
In Geneva last week, the World Meteorological Organization reported that 2005 thus far is the second warmest year on record, extending a trend climatologists attribute at least partly to heat-trapping ‘greenhouse gases’ accumulating in the atmosphere. In New York, NASA’s Goddard Institute projected that 2005 will surpass 1998 to end as the hottest year globally in the 125 years since reliable records have been kept. It said warming has accelerated and is now boosting the mercury every decade by more than 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit.” (Wired News)
Related:
Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts: “Scientists have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf.
The researchers were startled to find bears having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food. They are being forced into the long voyages because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting farther (apart.” Sunday Timesof London)
The Christmas Truce of World War I
“Amid the carnage of the Great War, enemy soldiers put down their weapons and came together to celebrate the season of peace. How did the cease-fire come about?” (The World)
