Today’s New York Times op-ed columnists suggest aspects of Bush Administration (or, after Counterpunch, “Bush Dictatorship”) cluelessness:

• Frank Rich: War Is Heck:
  

  “Disingenuous official claims
  
  of our allies’ strengths and
  
  our enemies’ weaknesses
  
  will come back to haunt the
  
  administration if all does not
  
  go smoothly.”

• Anthony Lewis: Ideology As Usual:
  

  “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

UFOs And The Great Outdoors:

‘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

Revealed: the bloody pages of Al-Qaeda’s killing manual — “A unique manual for Islamic terrorists, detailing every aspect of how to fight a guerrilla war, from biochemical attacks to finding the fatal pressure point during hand-to-hand combat, has been obtained by western intelligence agencies.

…

Filling 11 volumes and circulated both in book form and on CD-Rom to terrorist instructors, it offers guidance on how to inject frozen food with biochemical agents to create mass panic, rig up a door lock to explode when the handle is turned, and bring down a plane with a missile.” Sunday Times of London

Labour uses twin towers ad to boost tourism: ‘Two Labour ministers in the Scottish executive have been called “ludicrously insensitive” by relatives of British victims of the World Trade Center attack after launching a tourism promotion campaign with pictures of the atrocity beside the word “opportunities” .’ Sunday Times of London

The Victim may hold vital anthrax clue: ‘The death from inhalation anthrax of a Vietnamese hospital worker in New York last week has given American investigators what they believe may be the first important clue to catching the bioterrorists responsible, writes Sarah Baxter.

Because Kathy Nguyen, 61, the fourth American to die in a month of the disease, is believed to have received no letter containing anthrax, nor had any contact with other targets, the FBI is trying to establish whether she may have come into direct contact with the killers.’ Sunday Times of London

“The Central

Intelligence Agency’s clandestine New

York station was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attack

on the World Trade Center, seriously disrupting

United States intelligence operations while

bringing the war on terrorism dangerously close

to home for America’s spy agency, government

officials say.

…Immediately after the attack, the C.I.A. dispatched a special team to scour the rubble in search of secret

documents and intelligence reports that had been stored in the New York station, either on paper or in

computers, officials said. It could not be learned whether the agency was successful in retrieving its

classified records from the wreckage.

…The C.I.A.’s plans for finding a new permanent station in New York could not be

determined.” NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

And an editorial: ‘As much as the nation may yearn

for a crack intelligence service that can save the day, there is no such outfit

in Washington at present.

But there could be someday, if the White House and Congress are

prepared to address some longstanding structural and operational

problems that have hobbled the C.I.A. and its fellow intelligence services.’

An Intelligence Giant in the Making

Overshadowed by the public focus on new Internet surveillance and “roving wiretaps” were numerous obscure features in the bill that will enable the Bush administration to make fundamental changes at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and several Treasury Department law enforcement agencies.

Known as the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the law empowers the government to shift the primary mission of the FBI from solving crimes to gathering domestic intelligence. In addition, the Treasury Department has been charged with building a financial intelligence-gathering system whose data can be accessed by the CIA.

Most significantly, the CIA will have the authority for the first time to influence FBI surveillance operations inside the United States and to obtain evidence gathered by federal grand juries and criminal wiretaps. Washington Post

The central role of the parietal lobes in consciousness

There are now various approaches to understand where and how in the brain consciousness arises from neural activity, none of which is universally accepted. Difficulties among these approaches are reviewed, and a missing ingredient is proposed here to help adjudicate between them, that of “perspectivalness.” In addition to a suitable temporal duration and information content of the relevant bound brain activity, this extra component is posited as being a further important ingredient for the creation of consciousness from neural activity. It guides the development of what is termed the “Central Representation,” which is supposed to be present in all mammals and extended in humans to support self-consciousness as well as phenomenal consciousness. Experimental evidence and a theoretical framework for the existence of the central representation are presented, which relates the extra component to specific buffer working memory sites in the inferior parietal lobes, acting as attentional coordinators on the spatial maps making up the central representation. Consciousness and Cognition

A Deliberate Strategy of Disruption, “… a campaign of detentions on a scale not seen since World War II. As investigators race to comprehend the ongoing terrorist threat, the government has adopted a deliberate strategy of disruption — locking up large numbers of Middle Eastern men, using whatever legal tools they can.

The operation is being conducted under great secrecy, with defense attorneys at times forbidden to remove documents from court and a federal gag order preventing officials from discussing the detainees. Law enforcement officials have refused to identify lawyers representing people who have been detained or to describe the most basic features of the operation.”

A Washington Post analysis of the 235 cases they have been able to identify shows it “appears to be less an investigative search for accomplices to the Sept. 11 attacks than a large-scale preventive operation aimed at disrupting future terrorism.

That is evident, in part, from the fact that none of the detainees has been charged in the plot or with other acts of terrorism. In addition, the pace of detentions has accelerated visibly as government officials have received information about new threats and issued public warnings — spiking sharply, for example, after rumors of planned attacks Sept. 22.”

Roni Horn: A Builder of Paradoxes That Turn Viewers Inward

Coming Soon: Harry Potter and Hollywood’s Cash Cow: ‘On the one hand, the company wants to draw as much profit as

possible from J. K. Rowling’s mega-best-selling stories and lay

down a franchise for future movies and products that will feed

corporate coffers for a decade. But on the other, it worries about

tainting the golden glow that surrounds the floppy-haired little

wizard with too much hype and commercialism, alienating his

fanatical fans.’ I’ve previously written about the controversy about Warner Bros.’ giving Coke sponsorship rights, mentioned here. NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

Who reports to the Office of Homeland Security? One truly mind-boggling organizational chart related to this article. NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

G.O.P. Not Relying on Aid From Bush in ’02 Elections. ‘Despite President Bush’s

colossal job approval ratings, many Republicans who are

running in the midterm elections next year say they do not expect

him, even if he remains enormously popular, to help their own

campaigns.

If anything, some Republican lawmakers and strategists fear that

the war and Mr. Bush’s desire to appear bipartisan could prevent

him from doing much to benefit them next year. And they are

worried that the sagging economy — underscored by the surge

in unemployment announced this week — could eclipse the war

as a political issue and that voters could blame the Republicans.’ NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

Oh, what a ‘wobbly’ war — “On Sunday 28 October, the UK Observer’s front-page

headline announced ‘Blair rallies Britain as war nerves fray’.

On Monday 29 October, The Times (London) led with ‘Don’t

wobble, warns Blair’. On Tuesday 30 October, the Sun

splashed with ‘Cobblers to the wobblers: Blair’s rallying cry

to halt war doubts’. ” spiked

United States: all-powerful but powerless: ‘…Bush and his retainers want to fight nations; they don’t understand

21st century threats. The US has now demanded that all nations decide if

they are “with us or against us”. And Bush is getting the funding and

authority from Congress to spend ever more on military and spy

superstructure; US civil liberties will be curtailed; Bush will change our

lives to pursue an enemy he can’t find. Bin Laden should be pursued, as

should his collaborators and protectors. But the real target of our energy

should be to change the underlying conditions; to get smart, be modern.

The cold war is over.

The costs of not realising that will rise until the US comes to terms with

the new reality.’ Le Monde Diplomatique Essentially, the argument is that the US is stuck in an outmoded empire-maintenance mode. In contrast, Oxford historian Neil Ferguson argues in the Guardian that “the US must make the transition from informal to formal empire… Indeed the best way to understand this is not as Islam or fascism, but as Islamo-Bolshevism. What it represents is a challenge to a particular kind of power, namely the informal imperialism that the US has preferred to rely on since 1945… There is no excuse for the relative weakness of the US as a quasi-imperial power. The transition to formal empire from informal empire is an affordable one. But it does not come very naturally to the US – partly because of its history and partly because of Vietnam – to act as a self-confident imperial power. The US has the resources: but does it have the guts to act as a global hegemon and make the world a more stable place?”

“The Central

Intelligence Agency’s clandestine New

York station was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attack

on the World Trade Center, seriously disrupting

United States intelligence operations while

bringing the war on terrorism dangerously close

to home for America’s spy agency, government

officials say.

…Immediately after the attack, the C.I.A. dispatched a special team to scour the rubble in search of secret

documents and intelligence reports that had been stored in the New York station, either on paper or in

computers, officials said. It could not be learned whether the agency was successful in retrieving its

classified records from the wreckage.

…The C.I.A.’s plans for finding a new permanent station in New York could not be

determined.” NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

And an editorial: ‘As much as the nation may yearn

for a crack intelligence service that can save the day, there is no such outfit

in Washington at present.

But there could be someday, if the White House and Congress are

prepared to address some longstanding structural and operational

problems that have hobbled the C.I.A. and its fellow intelligence services.’

Bombing of farming village undermines U.S. credibility. This is not accidental collateral damage from bombs gone astray from nearby targets of strategic significance! The US is bombing remote villages far from anything of strategic significance with low-flying AC-130 Spectre gunships, and firing on villagers as they flee from the bombs. ‘Later, unidentified Pentagon officials told CNN that Chowkar-Karez was “a fully legitimate target” because it was a nest of Taliban and al-Qaeda sympathizers. “The people there are dead because we wanted them dead,” an official said.’ Toronto Globe and Mail And the civilian fatalities are being documented by respected NGOs like Human Rights Watch, not just reported by the Taliban.

Reaping the whirlwind: ‘Around the country, the far right reacts to September?s terror with anti-Semitic hatred, threats and conspiracy theories

.’ Southern Poverty Law Center And James Ridgeway in the Village Voice gives us some choice excerpts from the far right’s online reactions; for example, regret that they did not carry out the attack on “Jew York” themselves. ‘ “Please be advised that the time for Aryans to attack is now, not later.’ “

Here’s more, from the Ridgeway article, on the possible intersection in the paths of the WTC bombers and the Oklahoma City bombers about which I wrote yesterday:

Last week, U.S. News & World Report revealed that officials at the Defense Department were speculating that the late Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, acted as an Iraqi agent when he bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. That might seem a far-fetched idea, but federal agents initially put out a global dragnet, thinking the terrorists might have been Middle Eastern. Later, in preparation for McVeigh’s trial, defense attorney Stephen Jones traveled around the world, stopping off in London, Tel Aviv, Belfast, and Manila.

In the Philippines, Jones found people who told him Terry Nichols had met there with Middle Eastern terrorists, including Ramzi Yousef (the kingpin of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing) and, possibly, Osama bin Laden himself. Al Qaeda was using the Philippines partly as an auxiliary base and partly as a pool of new recruits. McVeigh ridiculed the idea of Nichols’s involvement in the Philippines, but Jones reports that his client later admitted it was possible.

What makes these theories even more bizarre is that the leaders seem to have crossed paths and exchanged notes. At one moment, they all came together in one wing of a federal prison in Colorado. There, McVeigh, Yousef, and the Unabomber met and became buds.

Differences emerge between US and Britain over war. The British are becoming more and more cool to the bombing campaign given the tide of negative world opinion, the civilian casualties and the inflated American claims of success. “A command control unit claimed to have been destroyed by the Americans has meant usually a phone inside a hut that does not work.” Asia Times (Hong Kong)

Declan McCullagh:
Terror Law Foes Mull Strategies Because parts of the spy law are so invasive that they arguably violate Americans’ privacy rights, opponents of the so-called USA Patriot Act have begun to weigh how to mount a legal challenge. Wired

Military Bars Green Party Leader from Flying: ‘As one of the U.S. Green Party’s top officials, Nancy Oden is used to controversy. But Oden never expected to be hassled by National Guard troops at her hometown airport of Bangor, Maine on Thursday and barred from flying out of it. She thinks it’s because of a Green Party statement she co-authored that ran in a the local newspaper. The statement calls for universal health care, limitations on free trade, and a stop to “U.S. military incursions” including the bombing of Afghanistan.’ wartimeliberty.com

Steven Weinberg:
The Future of Science, and the Universe. The grand unified theory is coming, and then we’ll be able to predict how the universe will end. New York Review of Books

An Enforceable Ban on Bioterror: “The attacks of Sept. 11 and the spread of anthrax have forced the Bush administration to reconsider its ill-advised antipathy to strengthening the 1972 treaty that bans the development, production and possession of biological weapons. This week President Bush proposed ways to assure international compliance with the accord. Unfortunately, the suggestions still leave the United States opposed to a critical enforcement mechanism.” NY Times editorial

Da Vinci bridge finally built after 500 years. New Scientist To paraphrase something one commentator somewhere (perhaps MetaFilter?) said, it makes modern bridge architecture look old.

Europe may ban internet cookies: ‘European Parliament members think the software tags may invade privacy, but others warn web surfing would be much slower.’ New Scientist IMHO, if you’re concerned about the ways the ‘net invades your privacy, cookies are largely a red herring issue.

Go West — ‘Amid appreciative coos and respectful nods, (Cornel) West, who teaches African-American studies and philosophy of religion at Harvard, is holding forth on hip-hop culture; when he isn’t speaking, he’s playing tracks of an album he recently put out with his brother Clifton West, songwriter Michael Dailey (a childhood friend), and producer Derek “DOA” Allen, who has worked with R&B singers Tyrese and Bobby Brown, among others. The album, called Sketches of My Culture, has 10 songs that mix hip-hop beats with touches of jazz, soul, and blues, and tell stories about the cultural legacy of black music.’ Boston Phoenix

Experts on Islam pointing fingers at one another. Did political biases and wishful thinking among scholars cause them to miss the most significant new developments in Middle Eastern politics and society over several decades, and in particular fail to recognize the predictable threat to the West from extremist terrorists?

And in some pseudo-punditry, Nobel literature laureate V.S. Naipaul’s contentious comments on Islam:

Ramadan Won’t Slow U.S. Offensive, Bush Declares. And Turkey, the only Islamic NATO member, will send forces to join the assault on Afghanistan and supports fighting through Ramadan. However, Attacks During Ramadan May Be Costly: “But as civilian casualties in Afghanistan grow, the U.S. is on the verge of losing whatever fragile goodwill exists across the Muslim world. The final transformation–from victim to aggressor–could come in mid-November if American forces continue the attacks into the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.” LA Times

Firefighters, NYPD Clash; 12 Arrested: “crime scene’, ‘disaster area’, ‘burial ground’, or ‘a steaming slag heap’? The facade of solidarity among the heroes collapses in dispute over ‘a new plan announced by city officials that would reduce the number of police, fire and emergency crew “spotters”–those who pinpoint possible human remains in the wreckage–at the World Trade Center site. Whenever they identify such remains, which continue to be taken out of the ruins, construction crews halt their work and special rescue teams remove the remains. Debris that does not contain remains is carted away.’ LA Times

Va. Supreme Court Overturns Law Against Cross-Burnings. They’re legal forms of first-amendment speech again, according to this court opinion which, parenthetically, also gives the nod to flag-burning. The dissenting opinion (by the court’s sole African American justice), of course, hinges on the concept that words — if threatening as opposed to merely offensive — should be treated not as speech but behavior. Where we as a society stand on this idea has broad import, starting with the cases, some still in litigation, of ‘free speech’ inciting zealots to murder health care personnel who perform abortions. Are we on a slippery slope to arbitrary infringement of civil liberties if we allow any words to be interpreted as deeds, or can a standard be defined?

‘Three Strikes’ Sentence Overturned by a San Francisco federal appeals court, the first time such a penalty has been successfully challenged on constitutional (the ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ clause) grounds in a case of a fifty-year mandatory minimum sentence for a heroin addict who had financed his habit with shoplifting and nonviolent burglaries. Washington Post

Why colds are sweeping your office

: “Offices whose workers are ravaged by a series of autumn coughs and sneezes may be hotbeds of chronic stress, warn scientists.

Any increase in the number of blocked noses and colds could well be due to the increased pressures of modern life, they say.

One expert even believes that the events of 11 September may lead to more colds and flu this year as the threat of terrorist attack adds to the general burden of winter worries.”

I’m actually more concerned about the converse message, that we need healthy immune systems to cope with the current crisis. While the field of neuropsychoimmunology attempts to articulate the little-understood links between the immune system and cognitive-emotional functioning, this new meme is popping up in all sorts of less sophisticated ways, e.g. television advertisements for vitamin supplements. (“Now, more than ever…”) One more group of profiteers blatantly exploiting fears of bioterrorism, little more.

OSHA halts mask use in Postal Service: “On the advice of health officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, the Postal Service bought 4.8 million of the spore-proof masks for its workers who handle mail and began offering workers the masks last week.

But according to OSHA officials and regulations, the workers must undergo hours of training and pass a “fit test” before they can be allowed to use the protective masks, which are like those worn by construction workers who install drywall and can be purchased at hardware stores.” Washington Times

The rumor busters — a portrait of Snopes.com‘s resident debunkers Barbara and David Mikkelson. Salon

Defense Sec. Rumsfeld wants the American people to be patient. He chooses to underscore it, however, through a strained and specious comparison with a very different war in a very different era:

“Consider some historical perspective:

• After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, it took four months before the United States responded to that attack with the Doolittle raid of April 1942.
• It took eight months after Pearl Harbor before the U.S. began a land campaign against the Japanese — with the invasion of Guadalcanal in August of 1942.
• The U.S. bombed Japan for three-and-a-half years — until August 1945 — before we accomplished our objectives in the Pacific.
• On the European front, the allies bombed Germany continually for nearly five years — from September of 1940 until May of 1945.
• It took 11 months to start the land campaign against the Germans — with the invasion of North Africa in November of 1942.
• It took the United States two years and six months after Hitler declared war on us before we landed in France on June 6, 1944.”

DoD News

William Saletan thinks the press is to blame for putting the impatient spin on things. Journalists’ reports of skepticism and frustration are a “self-escalating cycle” of “vicarious doubt.” For example:

• The fallacy of subjectivity — seeing the Taliban mind only from the outside but the American mind from the inside, the press can highlight the doubts and reassessments only of the latter. Our enemy always seems more resolute.
  

• The war’s progress “falling short of expectations” is often seen as an indicator it is not viable to continue, but Saletan argues “the public’s lowered expectations make the war on terror more sustainable, not less.”
  

• The side with the coalition of necessity has the more ‘fragile coalition’ than the side without one.
  

• A stalemate is inevitably interpreted as a victory for the defense (them) rather than the offense (us).
  

• Because journalists demand news, “If the United States fails to provide news in the form of measurable success, journalists will make that failure itself the news.”

Slate

Analysis: Why use cluster bombs? by BBC defense correspondent Jonathan Marcus. In a word, for their imprecision, the terror and collateral damage they sow.

Case Settled: Justice to Break Up Apple for Making Microsoft a Monopoly. “Do you punish the monster, or Dr. Frankenstein? We chose the doctor,” said Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal. SatireWire

As you know, I’ve been on the lookout for indications of the response of the far right to the Sept. 11th attacks and their aftermath. Here’s the come-on to a piece Joe Conason writes in Salon premium, to which I don’t subscribe, The real “fifth column”:

‘The true domestic threat is posed …by an unknown number of organizations and individuals on the farthest fringes of the right, with ideologies that echo Nazism and rap sheets that include every crime from bank robberies to bombings. Having repeatedly declared their determination to overthrow the United States Government and exterminate the “racially impure,” these outfits hailed the September 11 attacks as the opening salvo in a conflagration they hope will engulf us.’

David Farber, from whose mailing list I was pointed to this, comments on speculation of other links between the American paramilitary movement and Islamic extremists, for example that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols learned bomb-making from Ramsey Yousef. Supposedly, McVeigh’s attorney explored a line of defense for his client arising from reports by one of the leaders of the Philippines’ Abu Sayyef Islamic guerrilla movement (subsequently killed, apparently by his own people) that he was at a meeting with Nichols that also involved Yousef, discussing bomb-making. Here’s a Google search on ‘ “Timothy McVeigh” and Yousef ‘. [When I used the Americanized misspelling of his name, “Ramsey Yousef”, this search only came up with four hits. Thanks to Dan for pointing out the error of my ways.] This discussion thread on the “conservative news forum” freerepublic.com has some interesting speculation for right-wing conspiracy buffs.

US elite troops helicopter crashes: “A team of US special forces had to be rescued

after their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon said it was one of two

helicopters on a special operation inside

Afghanistan, and was forced down by bad

weather.” BBC [and winter hasn’t even started yet…]

Bush Plans Speeches With Coherent, Unified Message. Believe it or not, this headline was in the Times, not the Onion.

Salman Rushdie:
Yes, This Is About Islam, ‘ Highly motivated organizations of Muslim men (oh, for the voices of Muslim

women to be heard!) have been engaged over the last 30 years or so in

growing radical political movements out of this mulch of “belief.” These

Islamists — we must get used to this word, “Islamists,” meaning those who

are engaged upon such political projects, and learn to distinguish it from

the more general and politically neutral “Muslim” — include the Muslim

Brotherhood in Egypt, the blood-soaked combatants of the Islamic

Salvation Front and Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, the Shiite

revolutionaries of Iran, and the Taliban. Poverty is their great helper, and

the fruit of their efforts is paranoia. This paranoid Islam, which blames

outsiders, “infidels,” for all the ills of Muslim societies, and whose proposed

remedy is the closing of those societies to the rival project of modernity, is

presently the fastest growing version of Islam in the world.

This is not wholly to go along with Samuel Huntington’s thesis about the

clash of civilizations, for the simple reason that the Islamists’ project is

turned not only against the West and “the Jews,” but also against their

fellow Islamists. ‘ NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

Stories of Ghosts Who Infest the Living: “…(I)t does not take death to make ghosts of some of us. This year’s Cannes International Film Festival showed several tales of earthly spirits bearing earthly sorrows — lost souls leading the half-lives of those who never learned how to inhabit their own houses or jobs or marriages or even skin.

One such film was Joel and Ethan Coen’s Man Who Wasn’t There, which opens Wednesday. It’s the story of Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), a small town barber in California in 1949 who is unable to grab a piece of the American dream.” NY Times [“FMHreader”, “FMHreader”]

Mystery space blast ‘solved’. The famous June 1908 monster blast — estimated at 10-15 megatons — in Tunguska, Siberia seems to have been an asteroid. Solving such a mystery is a letdown in a way; there were many more exotic and bizarre explanations floating around out there — like a collision with a wandering chunk of antimatter or the detonation of a disabled extraterrestrial spacecraft. The event had a starring role in an X-Files episode one or two seasons ago, if I recall… BBC