The War On Drugs Kills
Oops, wrong address! Bang, bang, you're dead!
(via Metafilter)
The Oral Of The Story
From The Best Of Craig's List, a hilarious ad, entitled "Why I gave you that excellent blow job last year." Two choice excerpts:
That autistic-like repetition that drove you to pick one 6 inch part of my skin and rub it like you were cleaning the windows, then never deviate again? Did you not notice that it didnít even elicit an appreciative murmur? Did you not notice that I froze? Pay attention, man! And is there a reason that you picked a spot on my back to apply this movement to, as opposed to, say, a documented and socially recognized erogenous zone?I was having a difficult enough time dealing with the Wax-on, Wax-off routine with your hand, but good grief, did you need to add that ìsexyî interrogation? ìDo you want me to talk dirty to you?î Well, no, bonehead, not if you have to ask. The idea is to try a tiny bit of it andÖhelloÖNOTICE the reaction! ìDo your titties like me?î What the fuck kind of a question is that? Do my titties like you?...I donít know, ask them!
If you're interested in the whole, sorry, blow-by-blow, and the semi-happy ending, click here.
The Aura Of Safety
As a clotheswhore who travels like Liz Taylor (but with uglier luggage and minus the entourage), when I'm flying home from a trip, I always find that there are a few items that challenge the laws of bag-packing physics. Of course, that's why boyfriends with untapped space in their bags were invented. As usual, on a recent trip home, via Tampa, I handed off my overflow to my boyfriend. Well, on this trip, my boyfriend decided, at the airport, to roll his rollaboard on the plane. It just so happened that one of the items I'd given him was an elegant little desk set I'd bought: petite scissors, a mini stapler, and mini ruler. I'd completely forgotten this desk set until I spotted my boyfriend putting all his clothes back on after getting stripped and felt up by the TSA. A TSA searcher was going through his bag. My boyfriend couldn't figure out what the problem could be, as he travels all the time for his job, and had never gotten searched before. "Scissors," the searcher said, "We saw scissors in your bag." Uh-oh. I pointed out that I'd given him my scissors set. The TSA guy said he had to take them. I ask if I could mail them to myself. Yes, I could, the TSA guy said -- if I exited the airport and went through the metal detector again, and then... My scissors were history. Grrr...Like they were actually dangerous!...especially now that we have locking cockpit doors, blah blah blah.
I railed to the searcher (who wasn't a bad guy) that I was losing my scissors because people believe in god ("If everybody stopped believing in god right at this moment, nobody would be...[I was afraid to say "getting blown up"]... inconvenienced at airports!"). Fuming, I left the scissors, and the boyfriend and I went to our gate. As I sat down, I realized something and started to laugh: The TSA guy had gotten my scissors, but he'd missed the knitting kit I'd bought for my neighbor -- two metal knitting needles!!, instructions on how to make booties or whatever it is people knit, and a three inch metal yarn needle!! As there was never and never will be any danger of me knitting, violently or otherwise, I swiftly decided against declaring my contraband. But, the incident got me thinking: How much sense does it make, really, to take away scissors from people boarding planes, or to make passengers cut their rubber chicken with plastic knives? To me, this seems to be yet another measure designed mainly to make passengers feel more secure, but which doesn't actually make us more secure.
After boarding, I mentioned my thoughts to my boyfriend, a researcher for a crime novelist, who always runs around lugging piles of crime data. Naturally, he was packin'. He yanked out his laptop to show me a really fascinating PDF (click first item on page) of concealed weapons from the FBI, including photos of a James Bondian deck of fake playing cards, made of thin metal. The cards can be thrown "with deadly results," confirms Curt Anderson, writing for the AP. And there's more; much more:
Knives ... concealed in belt buckles, hairbrushes and combs, working cigarette lighters, crucifixes, lipstick cases, canes, umbrellas, keychains, pens, mock credit cards and money clips. While many of the blades are small, others can be at least 4 inches long and some are sword-length.One fake key made in Japan conceals a knife and a smaller key that could be used to escape from handcuffs.
One device, called a "shuckra," is a metal tube containing a wire that, when locked into place, becomes a hardened spike that could be used as a dagger.
There are false name-brand soup, hairspray, shaving cream and cleanser cans with hidden compartments -- the FBI calls them "can safes" -- where weapons or dangerous substances could be placed. Fake books with hollowed centers are used as safes.
To me, this PDF poses a question: If we really want to prevent terrorism, do we take away scissors at the airport or do we take out leaders of terrorist cells? Josie Glausiuz poses this question and more to anthropologist Scott Atran in "The Surprises Of Suicide Terrorism", in Discover. First, she wonders about terrorists' motivation. Based on research of suicide bombers, Atran calls it "utter nonsense" to deem terrorism the result of insanity, or despair or hopelessness:
The CIA released a report in 2001 on the psychology and sociology of terrorism, and they basically said these people are perfectly sane. If you look at the history of these kinds of extreme acts, they're pretty much directed by middle-class or higher-middle-class intellectuals. They always have been. Never have they been directed by wacky, crazed, homicidal nuts. The Japanese kamikaze of World War II were, by the way, extremely intelligent guys. If you read their diaries, they were German romantics, reading Goethe and Schiller, and quite conscious of the efforts of the state to manipulate them.
But, "How on earth," asks Glausiuz, "Does anyone sane work up the gumption to blow himself up, together with what is often hundreds of bystanders?" Atran responds:
Exactly the same way that you get soldiers on the front line of an army to sacrifice themselves for their buddies. What these cells do is very similar to what our military, or any modern military, does. They form small groups of intimately involved "brothers" who literally sacrifice themselves for one another, the way a mother would do for her child. They do it by manipulating universal heartfelt human sentiments that I think are probably innate and part of biological evolution. In fact, I think most culture is a manipulation of innate desires. It's the same way that our fast-food industry manipulates our desires for sugars and fats, or the way the pornography industry manipulates people to get all hot about pixels on a screen or on wood pulp.
"Why does it matter whether we understand the making of a suicide terrorist?"
Huge amounts of money were being offered, at least on the horizon, for science-related defense research, most of it going to things like bioterrorism prevention. There were all these harebrained schemes--they're still around--to have a Radio Free Arabia. They're going to bombard these people with information about how good our society is, our goals, and that's supposed to win the war on terrorism. If you look at the February 2003 National Strategy for Combating Terrorism, you'll see they plan to introduce programs against poverty and illiteracy. These ideas seem to me just completely wrong. First, the people who carry out terrorist acts are already educated. Second, they're not poor, so reducing poverty isn't going to do a thing.
"So what's your strategy for combating suicide terrorism?"
I think it has to be a multilayered strategy. You've got to be able to--and this I'm all for--go after the guys who operate the cells. Take them out. Get rid of them. Jail them or kill them, because they are not willing to compromise. What do you do with somebody who says, "All Americans and Jews have got to die"? The point of talking to such people has passed. Whatever the grievances were that caused such people to have such ideas, if they show that they're willing to implement them, then you've just got to make a decision whether you want to see this guy survive or you and your people survive.
(Atran piece via Volokh.com)
Librarians Get Feisty
Librarians are going up against Ashcroft and The Patriot Act, "indignant about a provision ... that could oblige them to cooperate with federal agents by turning over the records of what some library patrons have checked out," writes Margaret Talbot in The New York Times:
Some have reported that they are purposely shredding borrowing records. Others are reminding patrons that if they return books on time, their records are purged automatically, which must strike library workers as a lovely synchronicity of civil libertarian and housekeeping goals. Still others are considering how to refuse to cooperate if they are actually approached by the government. Meanwhile, an article that ran on a listserve for ''feisty librarians'' crowed, ''The old stereotype of librarians as meek maidens whose only passion is for the Dewey Decimal System'' is now ''being shattered for good, replaced by a new image of librarians as feisty fighters for freedom.''
You go, girls!
The Demerol Diet
Doctors who prescribe painkillers for people desperately in need put themselves in danger of losing their licenses and maybe even going to jail, and it's killing their patients. Per H.L Mencken's definition of Puritanism -- "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be having fun" -- we're so worried that somebody, somewhere, might get high, that we're needlessly forcing people to live in terrible chronic pain. Jacob Sullum chronicles this in a terrific article in a back issue of Reason:
A 28-year-old man who underwent lumbar disk surgery after an accident at work was left with persistent pain in one leg. His doctor refused to prescribe a strong painkiller, giving him an antidepressant instead. After seeking relief from alcohol and street drugs, the man hanged himself in his garage. A 37-year-old woman who suffered from severe migraines and muscle pain unsuccessfully sought Percocet, the only drug that seemed to work, from several physicians. At one point the pain was so bad that she put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger, unaware that her husband had recently removed the bullets. A 78-year-old woman with degenerative cervical disk disease suffered from chronic back pain after undergoing surgery. A series of physicians gave her small amounts of narcotics, but not enough to relieve her pain. She tried to kill herself four times--slashing her wrists, taking overdoses of Valium and heart medication, and getting into a bathtub with an electric mixer--before she became one of Rose's patients and started getting sufficient doses of painkiller.
I especially love the stories in Sullum's piece about people dying of cancer who are denied painkillers -- lest they become addicts! Get this, you've got six months to live, and somebody's worried that you're getting "addicted" to Oxycontin? Hello?
One doctor who, it seems, sacrificed his license to help serious pain sufferers, was rewarded for his efforts with an indictment by a federal grand jury yesterday. If William E. Hurwitz is convicted, he faces life in prison. Here's an ugly piece of slanted reporting about Hurwitz in the Washington Post (compare it to Sullum's exhaustive piece linked above) that dovetails quite nicely with the national paranoia about drugs:
Prosecutors allege that Hurwitz made large profits by charging an initiation fee of $1,000 for each patient and then $250 a month for maintenance. They said Hurwitz had about 470 patients in his clinic over the past five years, accounting for millions of dollars in profit.
So, he's supposed to give medical care for free? The Washington Post reporter never bothered to talk to any of the patients the guy has helped, and it sounds like there are legions of them.
Anybody whose life has been markedly improved by any Schedule II drug -- me, for example: I take Ritalin, which keeps me at the computer instead of bouncing off the ceiling -- should be very, very afraid.
UPDATE: Here's a related link from Reason's blog -- first, an essay by professor of pharmacy health care administration David Brushwood, on how prescribing practices that seem suspicious to regulators may actually be legitimate treatment of a patient's pain. Finally, there's this great quote from the comments section on Reason, by RC Dean (rcdean@samizdata.net):
"One can only hope that, when they fall sick, the drug warriors responsible for this are treated by doctors who they have cowed into undermedicating pain."
Short Subjects
"If you like the movies about homosexual dwarf taxidermists, check out The Embalmer," advises movie critic and blogger Luke Thompson.
I Know You Are, But What Am I?
Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie is very, very scared. Eek! What if gays and lesbians get the same rights as the rest of the taxpaying public -- the right to get married and get all the rights that ensue? Just for wanting that right, he accuses them! of "intolerance and bigotry." Haw, haw, haw...you're a funny guy, Mr. Ed.
Not only that, it's clear from the article linked above that Ed's all for amending the constitution to "define marriage as a monogamous, heterosexual union, and ... forbid states from legalizing homosexual marriages." Hi, are we threatened by homosexuality or what? Whatever happened to "Christian tolerance"? Ed counters that people are "free to pursue the choices they want in the privacy of their home, that's tolerance." Yeah, if you're gay, Ed will let you pursue marriage all you want; you just can't catch it.
Got Bilk?
An EBay master thief tells all.
(via Lockergnome)
Fur And Away
Simon Dumenco, in New York magazine on who's shaving, plucking, and waxing their body hair, and who's growing it out and braiding it.
Advances In Pharmacist-ed Living
I've been waiting for this: Provigil -- a pill that allows users to function normally after up to 54 hours without sleep, John Simons writes in Fortune magazine:
In 1998 the FDA approved Provigil to treat narcolepsy, but doctors prescribe it "off label" as a fatigue fighter for airline pilots, long-haul truckers, and medical residents. Users say the drug doesn't make them jittery the way caffeine does. One 200-milligram pill restores focus and alertness as effectively as three tall lattes and costs $5. And all the clinical data show that the drug has none of the addictive qualities of amphetamines like Dexedrine. Because Provigil has fewer side effects than Ritalin, it's even being prescribed to some children with attention-deficit disorder.
Deadline calls! Bring on those (chemically-assisted) sleepless nights! (The question is, will anyone's doctor be willing prescribe it?)
(via Reason's blog)
Huffington Hilarity
Comedy-sniffer and Reason mag Associate Editor Matt Welch found some very funny stuff on Ariannaís blog:
One of the few things I don't love about being on the campaign trail is getting the same questions again and again and again. Especially the one about my so-called ìpolitical transformation.îShouldn't there be a statute of limitation on questions about this? I mean, when I was a Republican, Saddam Hussein was our ally, George Bush owned a mediocre baseball team, Enron was a respected energy company and Michael Jackson was still black.
Well, we all have our vices. For some, it's booze. For others it's group sex. For me, it was Newt Gingrich.
Group sex and Newt in the same breath? Eeeeeuw!
Intellectual Property Theft: Itís Not Just For Slackers On Napster Anymore
The Wall Street Journal tries to get what they didnít pay for -- the right to use a Chinese calligrapherís rendering of the word ìdaoî -- the phonetic translation of ìDow,î as in ìDow Jones.î What's behind their wanting his work to be a freebie? Letís just call it ìselective capitalism.î
(via Romenesko)
Book Stoop
Just as pot doesnít really lead to heroin, Harry Potter doesnít lead to Rudyard Kipling, writes Harold Bloom in the LA Times. Bloomís sputtering mad about the National Book Foundationís ìdistinguished contributionî award to Stephen King:
"...another low in the shocking process of dumbing down our cultural life. I've described King in the past as a writer of penny dreadfuls, but perhaps even that is too kind. He shares nothing with Edgar Allan Poe. What he is is an immensely inadequate writer, on a sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, book-by-book basis.The publishing industry has stooped terribly low to bestow on King a lifetime award that has previously gone to the novelists Saul Bellow and Philip Roth and to playwright Arthur Miller. By awarding it to King, they recognize nothing but the commercial value of his books, which sell in the millions but do little more for humanity than keep the publishing world afloat. If this is going to be the criterion in the future, then perhaps next year the committee should give its award for distinguished contribution to Danielle Steel, and surely the Nobel Prize for literature should go to J.K. Rowling."
Is Bloom right or his he just "such a bitch"? Check out the sample pages from "The Stand," and see for yourself.
Welfare For Rich, Famous People
You canít visit David Geffenís Malibu beach house. Itís private property -- and off-limits to all hoi polloi -- unless it gets flooded. Thatís where the hoi polloi come in. Make no mistake: we polloi still donít get to visit. We just get to pick up the cost of rebuilding after the flood. Sweet, huh? Just like Bill Clintonís deal for his new offices -- those four times the size of his digs in The White House. Donít you worry that heíll be cracking into the $12 million he got from his recent book deal to pay the rent. Itís you and me whoíll be picking up the tab -- as we do for all ex-presidents -- rich, obscenely rich, or poor. The same goes for all the rich old people sucking off Medicare. At what point do we say, ìYo, moneybags, pick up your own damn tab?î
The Unsexy List
"50 genital-retracting people, places, and things, from the Nerve staff." A few of my genital-retracting faves:
1. Lip liner. To paraphrase David Cross: "Lip liner makes your mouth look like an asshole. You're talking and I'm imagining six different types of shit coming out of your mouth."4. Match.com personals. Fun-loving gal, 42, likes long walks on the beach, long Sunday afternoons at Linens 'n' Things, bridge . . . PLEASE KILL ME.
6. Denise Richards. Sexy two years ago, but now looks like she's been ridden hard and hung out wet.
15. Pilates. Yoga minus the kinky contortions. There are better ways to spend an hour on your back.
29. All-over tans. Frequently accompanied by a clean-shaved pubic region, a pot belly and a NASCAR visor. A deep-tanned penis looks like a dry-cured meat snack you bought at a gas station. Tan lines ó hot!
43. Blogging about your sex life. People who do this are under two delusions: a) that everyone wants to fuck them, and b) that their writing is interesting. Which is worse: sexual megalomania or an inability to edit? It's a dead heat. The online equivalent of that excruciatingly monotonous blowjob scene in every porn movie ever made.
What do you find unsexy? Add your metaphorical cold showers below!
"I Did Not Have Financial Relations With That Company!"
According to this Boston Globe piece by Derrick Z. Jackson, that's pretty much what Dick Cheney claimed about Halliburton. Cheney's public disclosure financial sheets tell a different story -- six figures in deferred salary from Halliburton to Cheney in both 2001 and 2002:
Flushed into the open, Cheney spokeswoman Catherine Martin said the vice president will continue to receive about $150,000 a year from Halliburton in 2003, 2004, and 2005. If President Bush wins a second term, that means Cheney will make at least $800,000 from the company while sitting in office.Martin said the payments did not represent a lie. She said Cheney had already earned that salary. She said Cheney took out an insurance policy that would guarantee the money would be paid to him no matter what happened to the company.
Five years ago, America was in a tizzy over President Clinton's "That depends on what the meaning of is, is." That was over lying about sex. For that, Clinton was impeached. Now, we have a vice president who tells America he has severed his ties even as his umbilical cord doubles his salary. To him, it depends what the meaning of i$, i$.
To me, it "i$" much more worrisome than a Sleazo-In-Chief who lied about getting blow jobs under the desk -- especially since I didn't see Clinton awarding Monica a multi-million dollar, no-bid contract to produce handbags for the Pentagon.
(via Metafilter)
Tiger Beat
Need to read? Then you'll be happy to hear that Lionel Tiger, one of my favorite anthropologists (and commentarians), has a new book out -- a compilation of his New York Press, Daily News, New Yorker, and Wall Street Journal columns, called "Apes Of New York." Here's a quote from one of his New York Press columns, entitled "Brain-And-Mouth Disease," about America's clutching grip on myths about fat and cholesterol:
...While the individual steps of the effect of fat have been demonstrated, the whole chain of events and their impact has not been. Among people not already at risk for heart disease (like enthusiastic smokers with high blood pressure), according to Taubes and the research of which he is the accountant, the evidence is weak that sharply reduced consumption of saturated fats will increase longevity more than a few weeks, perhaps as much as three months. As long ago as 1969, the National Heart Institute stated plainly, "It is not known whether dietary manipulation has any effect whatsoever on coronary heart disease." In fact, the authors of the report in which this was the conclusive sentence were concerned that, because fat is so important to cell membranes and the brain (which is 70 percent fat), too little fat could be a more serious medical deficit than too much. There is some evidence that very low cholesterol levels are associated with increased risk for auto accidents and aggressive interaction. Japanese physicians have found that low levels were associated with hemorrhagic stroke, and may counsel their patients to raise their levels.Since the beginning of the 70s Americans have dropped their consumption of fat to about 34 percent of their calories, down from more than 40 percent beforehand. The incidence of heart disease does not seem to have declined, according to a 10-year study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1998. Nonetheless, the treatment of heart disease has improved enormouslyñwith more than 5.4 million heart-related procedures compared with 1.2 million in 1979. This may provide the questionable impression that it is dietary change that is responsible for improved coronary experience.
Furthermore, the replacement of fat-containing foods by carbohydrates may have contributed to an epidemic of obesity and then diabetes among Americans. The term "fat-free" on a product appears to provide permission to consume large portions of it, producing an intake well beyond what seems to be necessary to balance energy consumed and energy used. Taubes describes how the principal political supporter of the low-fat push in the public arena was Sen. George McGovern, who had himself gone through the severely low-fat Pritikin diet program. McGovern then held two days of committee testimony in 1976 on the subject, and followed up by commissioning a former labor reporter for the Providence Journal, who had no scientific background, to produce the first "Dietary Goals for the United States."
This article of Tiger's happens to reference the work of one of my favorite science writers, Gary Taubes, who's most "secularly" famous for his New York Times Magazine article, "What If It's All Been A Big Fat Lie?"
If the members of the American medical establishment were to have a collective find-yourself-standing-naked-in-Times-Square-type nightmare, this might be it. They spend 30 years ridiculing Robert Atkins, author of the phenomenally-best-selling ''Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution'' and ''Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution,'' accusing the Manhattan doctor of quackery and fraud, only to discover that the unrepentant Atkins was right all along. Or maybe it's this: they find that their very own dietary recommendations -- eat less fat and more carbohydrates -- are the cause of the rampaging epidemic of obesity in America. Or, just possibly this: they find out both of the above are true.
In other words, Grease Is Good -- providing you don't swab it all up with a loaf of bread.
Turkey-Watching With Jill
With all the ridiculous last-minute bills flying around Sacramento right now, the only thing (save a wise decision from the Ninth Circuit Court) that might save California would be Gray Davis breaking all ten fingers. Political columnist and TV and radio commentator Jill Stewart runs down the turkeys lining up to be signed by Davis:
SB 796, by Joseph Dunn. Allows workers to seek fines of $200 each from firms who commit tiny labor violations. California's labor code is thicker than a Manhattan phone book. One code specifies a font size employee notices must be posted in. So 50 employees can now get $10,000 over improper fonts. More ice for our business climate. Dunn's special interest servicing of lawyers and unions is shameless.AB 1742. If your taxman has more than 100 clients, he now must send your return in via Internet. Your privacy is at risk.
AB 231, by Darrell Steinberg. "Reforms" the food stamp program, which required that nobody own a fancy car if taxpayers were buying their food. Up to now, car value was capped at $4,650. But now? Now, you can own a Rolls, and your household can own as many luxury cars as it wishes. Also, no more face-to-face interviews to qualify. Just give a buzz. Who's this for---busy, jobless billionaires? If it's really so poor workers can keep reliable cars, why wasn't a new cap set of $15,000? Did I mention that California's food stamp program is rife with fraud, and in particular is being targeted by con artists who are not poor?
What do you want to bet all of these, and more, become insta-laws? And what, exactly, are you waiting for? Get your own idiotic bill in today. If you've got a vote, Gray's got a pen!
Can You Hear Me Now, General?
Average Americans arenít the only ones with crappy cell phone service. According to a story on Slate, "US reconstruction officers in Baghdad could not even talk with U.S. military officers down the street," thanks to Pentagon idiots who awarded the Iraq cellular network contract to WorldCom/MCI. What did WorldCom/MCI do to deserve such an award? Maybe it was perpetrating "the largest financial fraud case" in American business, or maybe it was having "no prior experience at building cellular networks." As could be expected, they've done a simply brilliant job in Iraq:
Not until July did the cellular network in Iraq start up, and it turned out to be less than occupation officials expectedóor needed. According to officials who were there at the time, they could use the phones (which cost a staggering $4,000 a piece) to talk only among themselves. The network did not extend, or link, to Iraqi telephones.According to a Defense Department official, if someone working for the U.S. occupation authority needed to talk with a battalion commander, there was no way to make direct contact. He or she had to call a desk officer back in the Pentagon, who would jot down the message and call the commander himself. If the commander wanted to reply to the message, the same desk officer would jot down the response and call back the occupation authority.
Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the sickly cologne of lobbyist-scum. Too cynical for you? Well, there is another explanation: that the people running the Pentagon make their business decisions by shaking a Magic Eight-Ball.
Shrinks On The Take
Wonder why your shrink prescribes one drug and not another? Maybe it pays for him...literally. Noted schizophrenia researcher Dr. E. Fuller Torrey writes about how pharmaceutical companies surreptitiously put shrinks on their payroll by funding their conference trips and talks; and then, here's the really scary part -- how they can monitor how loyal the docs are to the company's drugs in return:
Pharmaceutical companies in many countries can now use computerized pharmacy databases (which delete the names of the patients) to track how many prescriptions any given physician writes for any given drug. So Eli Lilly could sponsor Dr. Smith from Detroit or Manchester, send him to Berlin, and then monitor his prescribing pattern following the congress. If Dr. Smith's prescriptions for Zyprexa and Prozac do not increase sufficiently, a company representative can remind him how well he was treated in Berlin. And besides, isn't he interested in going to Copenhagen next summer?There is clear evidence that attending conferences such as the Berlin meeting does affect the prescribing practices of physicians. In one U.S. study, 10 physicians were invited by a pharmaceutical company to attend "all-expenses paid" symposia at "popular Sunbelt vacation sites." The company tracked the physicians' prescribing patterns for two drugs, for 22 months before and 17 months after the symposia. Though the physicians had predicted that their attendance would not affect their prescribing practices, their prescriptions for one drug increased 87 percent and for the other, 272 percent. Other studies have shown that attending drug-sponsored education courses affects drug-prescribing practices, even though the physicians deny it. Indeed, if it were otherwise, why would pharmaceutical companies sponsor such activities?
So, maybe you're not all that crazy. Maybe your shrink just owes a few people. It's kind of like the mob, except that the mob never thought to give out pens and message pads with, say, John Gotti's name on them.
(via Metafilter)
Donated: Your Privacy
If you flew Jet Blue in 2002 or before, a whole lot of people might know a whole lot about you. According to this Wired story, in September, 2002, Jet Blue transferred customer data to a defense contractor -- with the assistance of the Transportation Safety Administration, and without the knowledge or permission of the passengers -- and that's pretty damn creepy:
The contractor, Torch Concepts, then augmented that data with Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information, including income level, to develop what looks to be a study of whether passenger-profiling systems such as CAPPS II are feasible.The study, titled "Homeland Security -- Airline Passenger Risk Assessment," which JetBlue says was based on an unauthorized use of its data, was presented at a February technology conference.
JetBlue clearly violated its own privacy policy by transferring its passenger data. Such a violation could be grounds for an investigation of unfair business practices by the Federal Trade Commission, which has the authority to fine companies and issue injunctions.
"We made a special exemption for this one exceptional case," said Gareth Edmundson-Jones, a spokesman for JetBlue. "We clearly have to review internally the decision and reconsider our policies."
Picture this: You paid a little too much for that new car a few years back, feeling comforted that nobody knew but you. Wrong! Just you and the 500 conference attendees who saw the PowerPoint presentation of your "vehicle ownership information" -- if you had the bad fortune to "save" by flying Jet Blue. Have you learned your lesson? Take this quick, easy test (just one question): How do you spell "privacy" now?
ANSWER: B-O-Y-C-O-T-T J-E-T B-L-U-E.
How'dja do?
Equal Opportunity Incompetence
We'll know our society is color-blind when it becomes common for black people to suck all the way to the top just like white people. Fran Lebowitz has it right:
"We will have equality when dopey black people get into Harvard because their chair-endowing grandfathers went there. We will have equality when incompetent black people buy their way into the Senate. We will have equality when larcenous black union plumbers start not showing up in greater and greater numbers. We will have equality when the unjust deserts and ill-gotten gains are spread around impartially. One Clarence Thomas is not enough."
Carol Moseley Braun for president, anyone?
John Ashcroft On My Shoulder
Oh, that poor, misunderstood John Ashcroft. According to a bit on Reason's blog, the government doesn't want to know "how far you have gotten on the latest Tom Clancy novel." Well, not yet, anyway:
Ashcroft does not deny that the PATRIOT Act authorizes the government to monitor your reading habits (and many other private aspects of your life). He just says the government has no interest in doing so. All it wants to do is catch the bad guys, and if you've done nothing wrong you have no cause to be concerned--presumably because government officials never waste resources, make mistakes, or act maliciously. In other words: Trust us.
Crime Pays, It Just Doesn't Pay Me
The LA City Attorney just called me about George Gomez, my car thief. (The LA Times legal department weenies made me call him "Fred Lopez" in my story even though it was clear I had his real name, along with an answering machine message from him apologizing for stealing my car and a signed letter of apology.) Anyway, the City Attorney had contacted me once before, last August, to see if George had made his restitution payment of $75 this month" for the damage he'd done to my pink Rambler when he'd stolen it.
"$75 dollars this month!" I said. "That would be $75 more than I've ever gotten from George."
Well, she called me this morning to let me know that George was "in custody," and again asked if he's been "keeping up with his payments." (Of course he hasn't!) She told me he'll be in court this afternoon (she mentioned that he has "lots of parole violations" -- surprise, surprise!), and said if the judge thinks George isn't likely to pay, he'll throw him in jail for 180 days instead. This is fine by me, except the part about the 180 days in jail meaning he doesn't have to pay me.
I don't see why he can't combine jail and paying me. I think of it as "The Hamster Wheel Principle." Let him run on the wheel (or hammer out license plates) until he earns what he owes me, then let him out. That's the way it should be for all prisoners. Unfortunately, government isn't quite the cold, cruel bitch I am, so they'll probably just lock him up someplace with a better color TV than I have, and let him sleep off his time.
A Cadillac In Every Garage!
What will Gray Davis give away next? There are, like, four businesses still left in this state, and they're all packing up as Davis signs any old bill anybody puts in front of him. It gets worse. A federal appeals court has postponed the October 7 recall election due to "voting equipment defects." I would say "last one out of California, please turn out the lights!" but I'm sure, by the time the election rolls around in March of 2004, we'll all be down to the last of our homemade candles.
Government Pot Is Rot
Canada passed out medical marijuana and those who smoked it wanted their money back.
(via Reasonís blog)
The Patriot Act: It's Not Just For Terrorists Anymore!
Meth-heads across America, watch out! According to this AP report, Uncle Sam wants you in the cell next to the guy from Al-Quaida, and he's going to use the new powers granted by the Patriot Act to put you there:
A North Carolina county prosecutor charged a man accused of running a methamphetamine lab with breaking a new state law barring the manufacture of chemical weapons. If convicted, Martin Dwayne Miller could get 12 years to life in prison for a crime that usually brings about six months.Prosecutor Jerry Wilson says he isn't abusing the law, which defines chemical weapons of mass destruction as "any substance that is designed or has the capability to cause death or serious injury" and contains toxic chemicals.
"Within six months of passing the Patriot Act, the Justice Department was conducting seminars on how to stretch the new wiretapping provisions to extend them beyond terror cases," said Dan Dodson, a spokesman for the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. "They say they want the Patriot Act to fight terrorism, then, within six months, they are teaching their people how to use it on ordinary citizens."
Let's see...if weapons of mass destruction are now "'any substance that...has the capability to cause death or serious injury' and contains toxic chemicals"...doesn't this mean we have to send the (much-)alleged former coke-head George Bush to jail; at the very least, for decreeing that all those old power plants can now puff black smoke into our lungs with reckless abandon?
Very Funny Money
It's a $200 bill with a pic of George Bush on the front and The White House on the back, with lawn signs including "WE LIKE ICE CREAM" and "USA DESERVES A TAX CUT." A cashier at a Roanoke, Virginia Food Lion took it seriously, accepting it in payment for $150 in groceries and giving the perp $50 change. (No word on who was pictured on that $50, and whether the lawn on the back included a bathtub, plastic pink flamingos, gnomes, or baby deer.)
The Most Talentless Music Acts Of All Time!
The Week magazine served up a few tasty morsels from Blender magazineís "50 Worst Artists In Music History." Here are my personal favorites:
#26, Celine Dion
Her ìshrieking uber-hits, particularly the Titanic theme, My Heart Will Go On, would have made the passengers ìleap to their doom long before the iceberg did its dastardly deed.î#39, Bob Geldof
ìShould have stuck to saving the planet.î His Sex, Age, & Death, with its ìachingly embarrassing claims of undiminished sexual potency,î is a midlife crisis set to music.#37, The Doors
First, Jim Morrison ìinflicted his terminally adolescent viewî on millions of unfortunate listeners. Then ìhe got fat and died.î
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Dentist's Drill
Three short stories in the LA Times about yammering parents on cell phones and the children they ignore helped me look back fondly on a few hours in the dentist's chair:
My dentistís waiting room is about the size of a coffee table. I'm sharing it with a woman and her little girl. I just want to sit there quietly and distract myself from the horror to come by reading old copies of People. The woman's cell phone rings.Now, I might be intolerant and unreasonable, but even I make allowances for "tell the babysitter not to let Johnny smoke crack before dinner" calls. This isn't one of them. No, the woman starts having a full-on, dentist's drill-shrill gossip session about her dull life. This must stop.
I start small, with a little ìHey, do you mind?î wave at the woman, and work my way up to expansive hand gestures and loud "Shhhhush"-ing. Unfortunately, every molecule of her attention seems to be commanded by her toe-curlingly dull conversation; hence, notice of somebody gesturing wildly two feet from her face appears to escape her. After a few minutes, I contemplate beating her to death with the June 1999 People and stomping her cell phone into small bits of plastic, but I recognize that postponing dental work with a lengthy court process will give me more time to be anxious about the drilling to come.
I try the spoken word: "A little quiet, please!" Nothing. I turn to her child and say very loudly, ìMommy has bad manners.î Of course, I could have been saying "Hi, I'm a pedophile, how 'bout you come over and see me some time?" and Mommy would have been none-the-wiser. Finally, I get right in Mommy's face and loudly tell her to put a lid on it: "You need to get off the cell phone right now!"
Mommy turns to me and goes all slack-jawed. ìHold on,î she says to the person on the cell, and to me: ìíScuze me?î
ìYour cell phone," I say. "Youíre talking very loudly and this is a small space and itís bothering me.î She makes a little put upon grunt and gets off the phone. We have a boring argument, which she loses. Unfortunately, she is too dumb to understand this. The hygienist calls me before I can remedially educate her, and I am treated to the comparative peace and quiet of my dentist's Black & Decker.
Why Did Daniel Pearl Die?
The New York Observer's Ron Rosenbaum speculates on Bernard-Henri LÈvy's speculations.
What Did He Know And When Did He Know It?
The contradictory reports about Bush and 9-11.
(via Cold Fury)
Cash Cows
"When you see what some girls marry, you realize how they must hate to work for a living." --Journalist Helen Rowland, quoted in Forbes
(via The Week)
Is This The State Of California...
Or Mrs. DeMaio's third grade class? According to a Fox News story, the California Senate just voted to punish that naughty, naughty Davis boy for saying mean things about that funny way Arnie Schwarzenegger talks. Davis, that big meanie, is supposed to apologize. Senator Martha Escutia was one of those who voted for the motion:
"I am not going to deny that when the governor made fun of Mr. Schwarzenegger's accent it was very, very painful, especially for someone like me who speaks with an accent."
Awww! Suddenly, I think expanding the recall and getting a few grownups running the state for a change would be a very good idea.
(via Volokh.com)
1-800-CLICK-THIS-LINK-IF-YOU'RE-DUMB-AS-CEMENT
Apparently, the latest scam to hit AOL's members' mailboxes (well, mine, anyway) is this little "we just charged your card, okay?" dealie, where you're supposed to click a link in a completely unofficial-looking email and probably "verify" your credit card number:
Dear AOL member,There has been a purchase added to your AOL billing method. This purchase took place at 1-800-flowers.com. If this order was unauthorized and you would like to cancel or review this order, please click here (link removed to protect the dangerously stupid)
Below is listed information about your order.
Produce - 32 dozen long stem rosesPrice - $79.99
Shipment Type - 3-5 Day Ground
Shipping and handling - $13.65
Total Price - $93.64
Anybody who's dumb enough to believe this sort of thing probably has a hard time performing complicated tasks like sealing an envelope or crossing the street without advance planning. That goes double or triple for anybody who gets duped by this particular email, which was sent from the screen name of some (purported) AOL billing department lackey named...YoungFatHoe!
Don't Call Us, And We Won't Call You
Are you annoying? If so, chances are you irritate the crap out of others free of charge. Why not become a telemarketer and make it your business to irritate others? Maybe even irritate your way into a new car!
Telemarketers have been much maligned lately, with major media saturation about the "Do Not Call" list. Still, their spokesdude, Tim Searcy, wants to make it clear that telemarketers are as patriotic as the next shill, uh, person. They aren't merely struggling for the continued "right" to interrupt your dinner; he insists it's actually First Amendment rights they're "fighting for"! You know: "Give me liberty, or give me a 'yes' on switching your long distance!" (Wait -- is that the Nokia ring-tone national anthem I hear in the distance?)
It's really great telemarketers are such staunch defenders of freedom of speech, because Dave Barry just printed the phone number of their association (877-779-3974) so we can all feel free to call and commend them for their, uh, patriotism. Oddly, they didn't appear to be very grateful to Mr. Barry for working to further their cause, and even made a snippy remark about receiving "no warning" before angry telemarketees by the bazillion interrupted their important business:
Though meant as a prank, the Barry column has had harmful consequences for the ATA, Searcy said. An ATA staffer has spent about five hours a day for the past six days monitoring the voice mail and clearing out messages.
Tragic, simply tragic. Be sure to call the ATA, toll-free, and express your, uh, sympathy: 877-779-3974
On A First Amendment Note: I'm all for freedom of speech...such as the freedom to hire somebody to stand on public property to ask us to give them our phone numbers so people in a boiler room can irritate the crap out of us. The freedom I'm not for is the freedom to hijack a telephone line I pay for to interrupt me at dinner time (or any other time) to try to sell me something. This freedom is, however, available for a price, per Tyler Cowen's suggestion.
AMY ALKON'S PRICE LIST FOR TELEMARKETERS:Interrupting me during my nap: $3,012.50 (not including tax).
During dinner: $3,761.23.
During sex: $13,456.50.
Other prices available upon request.
Telemarketers, I eagerly await your calls!
(via Romenesko)
Just The Junk Fax
Yes, this is a real letter, which I just faxed to the junk faxers at TheToner.com, who used MY fax ink and paper to try to sell me their crap. Bad idea!
To whom it may concern at TheToner.com:I just moments ago sent you an invoice for $100, for the junk fax you sent me, without my permission, to my fax number 555-555-5555. After reviewing junkfax.org, I realize that you owe me $1500. I would be willing to settle for $1000. Consider this your invoice, and pay that amount immediately. Iím engaged in a settlement process now with the US Mint for sending me three junk faxes, and I would be more than happy to take you to court, as I was going to do with the US Mint before one of their senior attorneys called me and told me they would settle, and sent me a form to collect from them for that purpose. Please have your attorney contact me this week to let me know when I can expect a check.
Unfair And Imbalanced
Arnold and Maria are appearing on Oprah's season debut. When will it be "Oprah Time" for The Gray Squirrel and the rest? It's hard to loathe Gray Davis and Bustamante more than I do, but you have to admit that "buying" free air time with celebrity when other candidates get none goes totally against the FCC's Equal Time rule.
(via David "Tell Me Everything" Rensin)
UPDATE: More on the Equal Time rolllback -- including a determination, reported in The Washington Post, that Howard Stern's show is exempted as Serious News. Mmmhmmm. Is there no shame there in government-land?
Liberty, Justice, And Abstinence For All
To anybody who doesn't think it's such a big deal, having a fundamentalist and his religious fanatic cronies running the country, check out how they're trying to stop funding for sex-related research:
Last December, a $147,000 grant for a Northwestern University study of women's sexual arousal was called "disgusting" by Rep. Dave Weldon, Florida Republican. Women were paid as much as $75 to "watch a series of commercially available film clips, some of which will be sexually explicit, while we monitor your body's sexual arousal," according to a flyer seeking volunteers for the study led by psychology professor J. Michael Bailey.
Disgusting? Kind of like women whose arousal problems go unnecessarily untreated -- who, in turn, develop a lifelong "headache" -- unnecessarily leading to the breakup of their marriages and relationships.
Put On Your Red Wig
Yes, it's that time again, time to tell me what you think about what I think. Here's Connect The Spots:
Just because a playerís found love doesnít mean heís going to stop looking for it. Perhaps thatís why thereís an aspiring Annette Bening in every woman. Bening is more than a movie star -- sheís the woman who turned Warren Beatty into Ward Cleaver. Itís the ultimate female ego-polisher, to be the one who had what it took to tame the beast. The truth is, thereís no woman fabulous enough. Only the beast can tame the beast...moreªª
Comment on this week's column posting. Just below and to the right.
Henry Kissinger Death Watch
According to an informed source, Henry Kissinger is ìquite vibrant.î You heard it here first -- but only because Iím making a Henry Kissinger joke in my column thatís going out today. I had to make reasonably sure he wouldnít kick off in the next four weeks, which would mean Iíd have to replace my columnís second question. (Sadly, some editors have something against running columns that are in very poor taste...poor dears.)
Live, From Up Your Butt!
"Although colonoscopy is very effective in detecting cancer, some people are reluctant to undergo the procedure," writes Anthony J. Brown, MD, apparently confused at why going to the proctologist's office to get a camera shoved up one's butt isn't commanding a bigger share of America's leisure dollars.
According to Brown's article, it sounds like doctors will soon be able to get the picture from the outside looking in, by taking a special x-ray of your colon -- called "virtual colonoscopy" -- an admittedly dull alternative for those who prefer to let their doctor relive his recent car trip through winding mountain roads by revving a video camera up and around their large intestine.
It's Your Body, Sell It If You Want To
Heidi Fleiss makes the case for legalizing prostitution.
(via Instapundit)
Alternative Uses For The Press-On Goatee
Yes, just as girls in Dubuque and Des Moines are getting into the Brazilian bikini wax and other extreme forms of down there defoliation, their Korean counterparts are going the other way. Yup. Korean cooter country is getting very...bushy, with pubic hair plugs, and maybe even an upsurge in merkin sales. (That's the name for a pubic wig, FYI.) Hmmm, suddenly, I'm picturing a rather rude version of that old Rolling Stones album cover. Oh, quit complaining. You've known for quite some time that I'm utterly inappropriate and sick. (Isn't that what keeps you coming back for more?)
My Kinda Gay-Basher
In that 1977 Oui interview Mickey Kaus dug up, Arnold uses the word "fag" with all the animosity of somebody describing "that guy in the blue car":
"Recently I posed for a gay magazine, which caused much comment. But it doesn't bother me. Gay people are fighting the same kind of stereotyping that bodybuilders are: People have certain misconceptions about them just as they do about us. Well, I have absolutely no hang-ups about the fag business; though it may bother some bodybuilders, it doesn't bother me at all."
The fact that Arnold comes off, in this interview, as the antithesis of somebody who hates (or even feels uncomfortable about) homosexuals -- and remember, this is 1977!! -- doesn't stop a handful of idiots from using the interview as a platform for painting Arnold as some gay-slurring regressive. Luckily, we have Matt Welch (yet another talented Los Angeles writer and thinker you can't read in The LA Times) to set the record straight:
So for Schwarzenegger -- his sport's top athlete -- to defend gays against unjust stereotyping 26 years ago, is far more remarkable than the fact he used a word that was not, at the time, widely considered to be "a vulgar epithet," as Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten recently described it (without using the actual word).Yet the news stories about the Oui article were filled with "fag"-bashing. "In an interview with an adult magazine 26 years ago," the Washington Post wrote, in a typical lead, "actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, now the leading Republican candidate in California's recall election, described participating in an orgy, said he smoked marijuana and referred to gay men as 'fags.' "
Other reporters and columnists openly doubted Arnold's tolerance, for example in the San Jose Mercury News: "He also said he harboured no prejudices against gays, although he referred to them as 'fags.' "
Meanwhile, on the Web, such bloggers as Robert Garcia Tagorda (boomshock.blogspot.com) were digging up 10-year-old articles about Schwarzenegger's involvement with various gay-rights groups, such as Hollywood Supports. And the candidate continued to profess support for gay adoption and civil unions, unpopular positions in the state and (especially) national Republican parties.
Cathy Seipp, On Writing For Penthouse
"...To proper feminists who ask how I can work for a magazine that exploits women, my answer is always: Go write for a women's magazine before you talk to me about exploited women.
Lured by the prospect of what, ludicrously, always seems like easy money, I have occasionally over the years done just that. But after weeks of snippy, sorority, slambook-style fee negotiations -- 'And FYI, the editor said, 'Why does she think she should get that much?' -- and torturously rewriting and rewriting until the correct women's mag tone (perky, smarmy, know-it-all, generic) is achieved, that fatally tempting $2 a word shrinks to about five cents an hour. At Penthouse, on the other hand, the drill always went like this: Accept advance, turn in article, hear back from editor within hours about how much he liked it, see not one word changed, collect $6,000."
(Cathy's blog here)
The Future Of Marriage In The United Christian States Of America
The Baptist Press reports that "the future of America is at stake in the struggle over legalizing same-sex" marriage. And they're right. Are we going to become the United Christian States Of America, or continue as a secular country?
The fundamentalists trot out frightened idiots like columnist Maggie Gallagher, who howled, at a Senate hearing, that the institution of marriage will be forever damaged if it's removed from its narrow, religiously-based definition. She argues (naturally, in a religiously-correct way) that children are central to the purpose of marriage. Well then, Maggie, let's go all the way and make couples take fertility tests before they tie the knot! "Barren" women or men who don't have enough swimmies have to stay single forever! Come on Maggie, it's called logic, and it's best when it isn't selectively employed.
Gallagher sees great horror in the idea that gay couples would become parents -- probably because she's never seen any gay parents. My experience has been that gay couples are amazing parents -- especially because they aren't having kids by accident ("Oops! The little strip turned pink!"). Because they have to go through rigorous adoption procedures, arrange for a surrogate mother to carry a child, or go the turkey baster route, gay parents don't have children unless they're really committed to raising them. That's something that they don't have in common with straight parents -- and what a good thing that is.
The whole ridiculous hearing left Keith Bradkowski, a gay guy who lost his partner in the 9-11 attack, feeling pretty perplexed:
"Jeff and I only sought to love and take care of each other," he said. "I do not understand why that is a threat to some people and I cannot understand why the leaders of this country would hold a hearing on the best way to prevent that from happening."
UPDATE: Eugene Volokh posted this report from the Federal Marriage Amendment hearing from Dale Carpenter, a professor who testified.
Theocracy Now!
Just what the world needs, more pregnant poor women who can't care for their hungry babies! Well, thank George Bush for fulfilling that need, by expanding a White House policy that "prohibits federal funds from going to international organizations that perform abortions or lobby foreign governments to liberalize their abortion laws." (Don't forget that many fundamentalists consider mere contraception a form of abortion.) Well, I'm sure Mr. Bush, with his commitment to the "right to life," will be coming right around with funds to help all those poor women with 12 starving children have the right to a nice hot lunch...for the rest of their lives.
(via ifeminists.net)
Constitutionally Clueless Legislators
"Apparently, some legislators are upset enough by courts actually, you know, enforcing the First Amendment that they've decided to resurrect a Ten Commandments Defense Act," intended to smooth the way for religious displays on government property, writes Julian Sanchez in Reason's blog.
If religion is so great, how come all these congressmen think they need to get government to publicize it, with glaringly unconstitutional bills like this? Sanchez notes a truly pressing need, on the part of these legislators, to go back for a little remedial government -- as in, a little Schoolhouse Rock -- so they can learn that about that "separation of church and state" thingie. Scary. Obviously, "the best and the brightest" are doing something other than running our country.
Why Religious Fanatics Kill
Peter I. Rose reviews Jessica Stern's new book, Terror In The Name Of God, in which she interviews various and sundry extremist sickos to discover what they have in common:
Almost everyone Stern interviewed said they were doing God's will, defending the faithful against the lies and evil deeds of their enemies. Such testimonials, she suggests, "often mask a deeper kind of angst and a deeper kind of fear - fear of a godless universe, of chaos, of loose rules, and of loneliness." It may be that many are "projecting fears and inadequacies on the Other."Stern also found abundant evidence to support the widely held assumption that lines between religious expression and political action are frequently blurred and are justified only by internalizing an ends-justify-the-means sensibility.
Stern suggests we respond, "not just with guns...but by seeking to create confusion, conflict, and competition among terrorists and between terrorists and their sponsors and sympathizers. We should encourage the condemnation of extremist interpretations of religion by peace-loving practitioners."
Contrary to what the anti-globalization huffy-puffies will tell you, giving them all wide-screen TVs couldn't hurt either. And I'm serious. Give the average would-be terrorist a choice between watching Law & Order reruns all day, or blowing a lot of "infidels" up, I'd be willing to place my bets with Jerry Orbach and crew.
Excuse Of The Day
"My apartment building is burning down so I can't come to work!" --actual excuse from my assistant, whom I happen to believe. What's your excuse?
"Let's Be Moore Like Iran!"
That's what an Iranian blogger notes Judge Moore is really saying with his refusal to remove The Ten Commandments from government premises. Jeff Jarvis, who keeps watch on the Iranian blog scene, excerpted the guy's comments:
"...Mr. Moore has violated the principle which sets the US government apart from regime's like that which is oppressing the people of Iran. by stating that the word of HIS 'god' shall overrule the laws of the State of Alabama, he has declared that he wishes Alabama to become a theocracy, just like the one in Iran. he has declared himself the representative of 'god' on Earth (or in Alabama), and has allowed himself to destroy the civil institutions of that State based on his religious bigotry. Mr. Moore should move to Iran, and join the Ayatollahs in doing the 'work of god', ie, opressing people and destroying democracy."
Now, here's a worthy cause -- chipping in for Ayatollah Moore's one-way plane ticket to Tehran!
"My Parents Got God, And All I Got Was This Lousy Casket!"
Religion kills, and not just when terrorists strap bombs to their chests in the name of it. It's what parents of various denominations use to justify refusing medical treatment for their kids, writes Ronald Bailey in Reason:
"You can't beat, sexually abuse or starve your kids, but the law allows a parent to refuse medical care in favor of magic," says Dr. Seth Asser, co-author of an article on medically preventable child fatalities.
Yes, it's 2003, and we have all this science, and people are still crossing their fingers and hoping Johnny's cancer boo-boo will go away. Should we really allow kids to die because their parents are wildly irrational (and/or just plain stupid, as in the case of the parents who kidnapped their kid with cancer to prevent him from getting chemotherapy)?
And how many people are dead this week just because other people believe in god? Last week, for example, there was that darling little autistic boy in Milwaukee, who had the bad fortune to be born to a parent who found it perfectly reasonable to let her preacher wrap him in sheets, hold him down, kicking and screaming, and pray to ìcast the devil out of himî -- in turn, suffocating him:
"What we was trying to do was call the spirit out of the young man that was making him not act right," (the preacher) said.Sick, sick stuff. Add that little boy's death to those of myriad people in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia who were blown to bits in the past seven days or otherwise offed in the name of religion. If anybody's got a bit of time on their hands, it seems a worthwhile enterprise to keep daily or weekly count of people who would be alive, but for their primitive beliefs, or somebody else's. To keep the contest fair, I promise to keep close watch on the numbers of people strapping bombs to their chests and hopping on packed buses because they're highly rational and have a belief in free will and secular ethics.
Not A Democrat, Nor A Republican, But A Realist
Richard Forno is a Realist, and this is his "Manifesto" -- an excerpt from his new book, Weapons Of Mass Delusion: America's Real National Emergency. It makes more sense than anything I've read or heard in a long time. If he were running -- for governor, for president...for anything -- I'd vote for him in a white-hot second. Click that link up there! It's worth reading.
Mac Like Me
Isnít it time you got rid of that uninnovative Windows thing thatís just one big motel for viruses? Hereís a story of a guy who switched to a Mac:
ì...everything is more instinctive. However for someone used to using Windows, such as myself, itís a difficult transition, you end up hunting for programs that you donít need to hunt for, because theyíre right in there for you, you just donít realise it because it normally isnít there. This is best illustrated with something that I discovered quite by accident with iTunes. I had downloaded an MP3 file, (www.mookee.com if youíre interested), and played it using iTunes. To my utter delight, it moved the MP3 file from where it was, renamed it to the same style as my CD ripped music files, and had added it to the library, not tacked it onto the end of my play list, or overwritten my play list with just that one song. To achieve such an effect on Windows you have to download a third party MP3 player, and possibly an add-on to do that for you. It is small, nice, differences like this that make using OS X such a pleasure. What was once a chore in Windows is a breeze in OS X.
This bit from the comments section, posted by ìBob Jones,î explains it all:
"The only problem with Microsoft is they have no taste... I don't mean that in a small way -- I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products... So, I guess I am saddened, not by Microsoft's success -- I have no problem with their success; they've earned their success for the most part -- I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products."-- Steve Jobs; Triumph of the Nerds/PBS documentary interview (May 1996)
A Peace Of Dynamite Strapped To A Vest
What are they smoking over there at The Christian Science Monitor? They just put out an unsigned editorial, criticizing Israel for coming down a little too hard on the Palestinians, who have, get this..."generally lived peacefully within Israel's democracy"!! I think if, say, WASPs, in our country, were running around blowing up buses, we'd shut down a few Connecticut golf courses, too.
Enough About Me, What Do You Think About Me?
Well, the way I think, that is. Read the column "Clod Is In The Details," linked from the excerpt below, that I just posted on the front of the site:
Why wait until you have a relationship with a woman to take her for granted? Take her for granted right from the start!...more>>
Feel free to post your comments here.
Presumed Guilty
An amazing story by A.C. Thompson about a wrongful conviction overturned.
(via Romanesko)
George, Unzipped
Psychologist Oliver James analyzes the President.
(via Metafilter)
Something Frivolous To Read When You're Done Bitch-Slapping Me Over Global Warming
Six Questions asked by Cecile DuBois, and answered by Amy Alkon, intelli-bimbo -- my new name for myself this week. Cecile is only 14, but she's been accused (on Luke Ford's site) of being something along the lines of a "dissolute 46-year-old LA Times writer" -- quite a compliment, I think, if you omit the LA Times part.
Now You CO2 It, Now You Don't!
In 1996, the EPA looked to science to account for global warming:
Recent scientific evidence shows that the greenhouse effect is being increased by release of certain gases to the atmosphere that cause the Earth's temperature to rise. This is called "global warming." Carbon dioxide (CO2) accounts for about 85 percent of greenhouse gases released in the U.S. Carbon dioxide emissions are largely due to the combustion of fossil fuels in electric power generation. Methane (CH4) emissions, which result from agricultural activities, landfills, and other sources, are the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases in the U.S.
These days, the Bush administration appears to look to lobbyists, mainly, for its "science." Andrew Gumbel reports in Britain's Independent that the administration has just decreed "that carbon dioxide from industrial emissions - the main cause of global warming - is not a pollutant," excising "a 28-page section on climate change from an EPA report," and "ignoring a report by the US Academy of Sciences that argued that the evidence of climate change could not be ignored":
The Bush administration appears to be guided by a leaked memo by the political consultant Frank Luntz, which advised: "Should the public believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate."
Don't know about you, but I prefer to err on the side of breathing, summer and winter temperatures that aren't falling off the ends of the thermometer, and not submerging big chunks of the planet.