The Curse of Power Point

I will admit, back in the days when I was giving talks, Power Point seemed the way to go.

Years and years ago, one made up one's slides on paper and sent them to the institution photographer who took a week or ten days to get back to you with a bunch of white-on-dark blue slides. They looked like blueprints. They were always sort of second rate.

Next, one generated slides on the computer using Power Point (circa 1988-89) and plugged a slide machine into the computer to transfer the slides to film, which then was developed. One always made a few mistakes that were irrevocable.

Finally, as this caught on, we had the video projectors. Just make the slides in Power Point and project them from the laptop. This has led to all sorts of things like dynamic slides with words dropping in from nowhere to little animations and movies. All very cute.

Enter Christmas and Kids:

In hopes of receiving exactly what she wants for Christmas this year, Katie Johnsen, 11, created a Power Point presentation to show her parents what's on her wish list.

Back in the dark ages (1960's) the reigning guru was Marshall McLuhan. He famously wrote a book, Understanding Media:

McLuhan's most widely known work, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964), is also a pioneering study in media ecology. In it McLuhan proposes that media themselves, not the content they carry, should be the focus of study -- popularly quoted as the medium is the message. More controversially, he postulates that content had little effect on society -- in other words, it did not matter if television broadcasts children's shows or violent programming, to illustrate one example -- the effect of television on society would be identical. He notes that all media have characteristics that engaged the viewer in different ways; for instance, a passage in a book could be reread at will, but (at least until the advent of the videocassette) a movie had to be screened again in its entirety to study any individual part of it.

Professor McLuhan died before Power Point became extant, but I wonder what he would have had to say about the power of Power Point to change the way we discourse. No longer does one "talk" at a lecture. One gives, well, points. The more powerful the better. It is not a question of conveying information allowing the person attending the lecture to make their own decision. It is convincing them of your point. Thus the "power."

And so it has evolved to children convincing their parents of to get them goodies using "power."

Have you seen any kids in line for Santa with a laptop in hand?

Why is this man laughing?

You got to wonder about those Christians out there. You would think they would be all over the budget cuts for poor people like chicken pox. But, well, NO:

When hundreds of religious activists try to get arrested today to protest cutting programs for the poor, prominent conservatives such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell will not be among them.

That is a great relief to Republican leaders, who have dismissed the burgeoning protests as the work of liberals. But it raises the question: Why in recent years have conservative Christians asserted their influence on efforts to relieve Third World debt, AIDS in Africa, strife in Sudan and international sex trafficking -- but remained on the sidelines while liberal Christians protest domestic spending cuts?

Conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family say it is a matter of priorities, and their priorities are abortion, same-sex marriage and seating judges who will back their position against those practices. (emphasis added)

"It's not a question of the poor not being important or that meeting their needs is not important," said Paul Hetrick, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, Dobson's influential, Colorado-based Christian organization. "But whether or not a baby is killed in the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy, that is less important than help for the poor? We would respectfully disagree with that."

What happened to this:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven....

Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth....

Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy."

I don't see:

"Blessed are they who discriminate against the poor
For they will be sent to Iraq...

or

Blessed are they that bash gays,
For they will pick boogers for ever...

or

Blessed are the conservative judge pickers
For they will also pick boogers for ever."

Oh, those born again Republicans. Can't get anything right.

(Oh, and by the way, Mr. Hetrick, no one does third term abortions unless its to save the life of the mother. Did you hear me. NO ONE!)

Human Brain Cells Are Grown In Mice - II

Something in this article struck us here at Data Central:

The research offers the first proof that human embryonic stem cells -- vaunted for their potential to turn into every kind of human cell, at least in laboratory dishes -- can become functional human brain cells inside a living animal, reaching out to make connections with surrounding brain cells.

The human cells had no apparent impact on the animals' behavior. About 100,000 cells were injected into each animal and just a fraction survived in their new hosts. That means the animals' brains were still more than 99 percent mouse -- a precaution that helped avoid ethical objections to creating animals that were "too human." (emphasis added)

We are glad that there was no effect on the mice's behavior, becoming human they might have invaded the kitchen looking for WMD and turned our house into a graveyard.

...creating animals that were "too human."

Think about this statement for a minute. Of course, one has to look at it from the mouse's standpoint. Was it ethical for the mouse to have human cells injected into it? I mean, give me a break.

Aye, Carumba!

Human Brain Cells Are Grown In Mice

Holy Carumba! Get me some of them mice. Get me some brain cells. Karl is on the way out. I need another brain!

(from the peanut gallery: "You need a brain, period.")

Arnie's World

The Spirit of Entrepreneurship

Not Dottie

It is pretty sad when:

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. - Dottie Neeley, 87, was fingerprinted, photographed and thrown in jail, imprisoned as much by the tubing from her oxygen tank as by the concrete and steel around her.

The woman — who spent two days in jail after her arrest last December — is among a growing number of Kentucky senior citizens charged in a crackdown on a crime authorities say is rampant in Appalachia: Elderly people are reselling their painkillers and other medications to addicts.

"When a person is on Social Security, drawing $500 a month, and they can sell their pain pills for $10 apiece, they'll take half of them for themselves and sell the other half to pay their electric bills or buy groceries," Floyd County jailer Roger Webb said

A country that does not care for its sick, its elderly or its children is no country at all.

30,000? 50,000? 100,000?

Pretty soon you're talking about real bodies.

Our Dear Gov - 33

Our Dear Gov - 33 (CLICK CARTOON TO ENLARGE)

Let there be an Accounting

Let me get this straight:

1. Saddam Hussein is not a good man. Agreed?
2. Saddam Hussein is responsible for the death of a large number of people. 100,000?
3. Saddam Hussein is on trial for these crimes.
4. It is not known if he personally killed anyone. Nevertheless, he is held responsible for these deaths. He may suffer the ultimate consequence.

1. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died including countless children. They have died during "Shock and Awe," the merciless attack on Bagdhad in March, 2003, and they have died in Fallujah. And, yes, they have died at the hands of insurgent suicide bombers.

Who will be held responsible for the civilian deaths in Iraq?

Its Gimme, Gimme time

As seen here (about the "Just Say Merry Christmas" bracelets:

Cincinnati Christian bookstore owner Jennifer Giroux told "Farah Live" listeners yesterday she and her husband were looking for some small way to "take back Christmas for the baby Jesus" (emphasis added)

Tell that to Walmart, madame.

Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005)

Eugene McCarthy has died. This is a sadness but his memory should not be forgotten. Gene McCarthy vitalized and vocalized the anti-War movement of 1967-68. He entered the Democratic primaries in opposition to Lyndon Johnson. I slogged through the snows of New Hampshire
along with thousands of others in February, 1968.

On November 30, 1967, he announced that he would run against President Lyndon Johnson for the nomination of the Democratic Party. Although the press and polls were skeptical that McCarthy's candidacy could effectively contest Johnson's war policy, young people in particular flocked to his banner. Thousands left school and work to sleep on floors while walking the streets and phoning the voters for primaries throughout the Spring.
After McCarthy won 42 percent of the vote in the Demoratic primary (in New Hampshire), the contest changed. On March 31, 1968, President Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election. Two days later, LBJ received only 35 percent of the votes in the Wisconsin primary, to McCarthy's 56 percent.

These events changed the dynamic of politics. Bobby Kennedy was viable candidate. He was assassinated. Hubert Humphrey was nominated but, in a fatal twist of History, beaten by Richard Nixon.
Richard Nixon went on to prosecute the War in Vietnam including bombing of Hanoi and invasions of Cambodia and Laos. Then we lost.

Sound familiar?

Big Dogs and Free Speech

DA DA DE DA DA (TRUMPET CALL)

We support free speech in Iraq! We support free speech in Iraq!

Woopsy!

Bush Threatens U.N. Over Clinton Climate Speech
Bush-administration officials privately threatened organizers of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, telling them that any chance there might’ve been for the United States to sign on to the Kyoto global-warming protocol would be scuttled if they allowed Bill Clinton to speak at the gathering today in Montreal, according to a source involved with the negotiations who spoke to New York Magazine on condition of anonymity.

The Big Dog and the Best President of the last 100 years.

Why is this man grinning?

This is Representative Wayne Gilchrist (Republican). He allegedly represents the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He has voted for:

1. Cuts in Medicaid, School Lunches and Student loans. $50 Billion.

2. Another tax break for the wealthy. Minus $50 Billion.

This child would like to know why Wayne Gilchrist is smiling. Is he enjoying it?

Poor Children Cheer Tax Cuts

Children today welcomed the House vote to preserve tax cuts for the very wealthy. They said that they didn't need the medical care that had to be abolished in order to pay for the cuts. They joined students who were unable to get loans in praising the foresight of the rich pigs who were benefiting from the cuts since they liked ham sandwiches and knew that they would be thrown a bone. Doctors that depended on Medicaid were confident that they could recover costs out of the thin air that now emanated from Capitol Hill after all the wind bags had used what was there up. So Sad.

WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to preserve tax cuts for investors through the rest of the decade, safeguarding the centerpiece of the Republican tax agenda in a $56 billion package of tax breaks.

The bill, passed 234-197 along mostly party lines, would keep the 15 percent top tax rate for capital gains and dividends in place in 2009 and 2010, two years after their scheduled disappearance at the end of 2008.(emphasis added)

It was noted with some irony that $50 Billion was exactly what was cut from Medicaid, Student loans and School lunches. Republican Congressmen and women were heard to say:

"Let them eat cookies."

Not a political Committee

Oh, those Republicans.

Michael Dubke, president of the Virginia-based group, denied any wrongdoing. He said his group is not a political committee so it is not required to make such disclosures.

Americans for Job Security is registered under 501(c) of the federal tax code, a classification that allows groups to engage in political activity without revealing contributors as long as that is not their main activity. It has run about $1 million in ads in Pennsylvania television markets in support of Santorum and his Social Security plan.(emphasis added)

A million here, a million there. Pretty soon you're up with Tom DeLay.

We Do Not Torture!

We do Not Torture!

Yea!

WE DO NOT TORTURE

Ooops!

Celebration in Munich

Neville Chamberlain assures the Germans that we do not torture.

Munich, Germany - European foreign ministers said Thursday that Secretary of State Neville Chamberlain had "cleared the air" by assuring NATO allies that the Allies do not allow torture of terrorist suspects and respects principles of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.

A bystander at the proceedings (on the right in the picture) jumped with glee.

We Do Not Torture

What can any sane American make of the following statement:

KIEV (Reuters) - The United States explicitly banned its interrogators around the world from treating detainees inhumanely in a policy shift made public on Wednesday under pressure from Europe and the U.S. Congress.

No, No, No, Mr. Bullwinkle. Don't hit me no more.

(Answer: We HAVE been torturing all along, in defience of our Constitution.)

The Perfect Storm

This is a picture of the "Perfect Storm" in 1991, the one the movie was based on. This is a picture of a lung after infection with the Bird Flu Influenza, H5N1 strain. It is known as a Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and it is brought on by a Cytokine Storm:

When the lungs are infected with the flu virus, the T cells release chemical signals that cause them to stay longer in the lungs. However, more T cells are always arriving, and they in turn release more signal and stay longer in the cells, leading to a build up of T cells and chemical signals. This is called a "cytokine storm" and it is thought that this causes damage to the lungs.

The most interesting thing about a cytokine storm is that it can inflict itself on anyone, maybe even more so on someone who is in good health. Sort of interesting, that.

When the immune system is fighting pathogens, cytokines signal immune cells such as T-cells and macrophages to travel to the site of infection. In addition, cytokines activate those cells, stimulating them to produce more cytokines. Normally this feedback loop is kept in check by the body. However, in some instances, the reaction becomes uncontrolled, and too many immune cells are activated in a single place.

---snip---

It is theorized that cytokine storms were responsible for many of the deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed a disproportionate number of young adults. In this case, a healthy immune system may have been a liability rather than an asset.

Let me repeat, the deaths caused by the flu epidemic of 1918 were caused by ARDS which was, in turn, a result of a Cytokine Storm which was caused by the H5N1 flu strain, the one we presume will be the cause of bird flu.

Ergo, we should be doing something about Cytokine Storms. We aren't doing a damn thing as best as I can see. The only thing we are doing is stocking Tamiflu. It is possible that Tamiflu will damp down the response of the body to bird flu and prevent Cytokine Storm. Then again, given our other hypotheses about health (e.g. AIDS is cause by the way you live), I wouldn't bet on it.

There is only one potential treatment for Cytokine Storm out there. It is an antibody.

Ways to stop the cytokine storm have focused on blocking all T cells, but this stops the patient's immune system from clearing the virus and leaves the body open to other infections. The goal is to prevent the storm forming without stopping the T cells attacking the flu virus. To acheive this, the researchers developed a way of down-regulating one of the T cells signalling chemicals (called OX40).

"OX40 sends out a survival signal instructing activated T cells to remain in the lungs for longer to help fight the infection," explained lead researcher, Dr. Ian Humphreys. "Inhibiting this signal therefore allows T cells to vacate the lungs earlier whilst leaving behind a sufficient immune presence."

The researchers blocked the action of OX40 by using a fusion protein (OX40:Ig)....

The whole interaction is fairly complex. It has to do with Tumor Necrosis Factor and receptors:

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-receptor-associated factors (TRAFs) form a family of cytoplasmic adapter proteins that mediate signal transduction from many members of the TNF-receptor superfamily and the interleukin-1 receptor.

But this doesn't mean we shouldn't be focusing a major research effort in this direction.

No, we are stockpiling Tamiflu.

Let me remind you one more time, Donald Rumsfeld has made over a million dollars on the stockpiling of Tamiflu. So, there!

Give me Seven

"Daddy, what do these palefaces believe in?"

Lust – “Give me more oil, give me mid-East oil, give me more money, give me the wealth of the Nation. Give me the wealth of the World.”

Gluttony – “I will drive an SUV until Alaska gives up its last drop of North Shore crude. By the way, ‘giant size’ those fries.”

Greed – “No, little boy, you don’t need lunch in school today. I need a tax break.”

Sloth – “Brownie, you’re doing a great job. Just keep sitting on your ass and let New Orleans drown.”

Anger – “I just have this to say to the insurgents, ‘Bring em on!’ Oh, and we don’t torture. We just inflict cruel and unusual punishment.”

Envy - “Give me more oil, give me mid-East oil, give me more money, give me the wealth of the World.”

Pride – “We do not torture. We are bringing democracy to Iraq.”

Good Neighbors

This is a picture of Donald Rumsfeld. No, No, No, it is actually a picture of Dick Cheney. No, no, I was wrong, its a picture of a head louse. Head lice don't cause a problem. Much. Head lice are completely benign but they cause school systems to go into Red Alert Meltdown.

Recently, head lice have been very difficult to treat. They have become resistant to Rid and Nix and Kwell. They are tough little buggers.

Then there was a publication in Pediatrics, one of the flagship journals of the field. A doctor in California had a magic potion (funny, his name was Harry Potter) that you put on the lice infested head and then blow dried the hair. The lotion dried around the lice and smothered them to death. The only problem was that you had to go to Menlo Park in California to get the goodies. It was "proprietary." Until today.

CHICAGO -- Parents who paid $285 for an experimental head lice treatment for their children might be scratching their own heads, now that the doctor selling the stuff says it's really a skin cleanser available for under $10 a bottle at drug stores nationwide.

Dr. Dale Pearlman got widespread media attention and skepticism from some head lice experts last year when the journal Pediatrics published his study detailing results with a product he called Nuvo lotion. He described it as a "dry-on suffocation-based pediculocide" and the first in a new class of nontoxic lotions for head lice.

Turns out that "Nuvo" was just Cetaphil, available over the counter at most drug stores for $10.

Pearlman acknowledged that he didn't disclose the information until now "because I wanted to get rich" and had hoped pharmaceutical companies would offer him money to further develop a Cetaphil-based product for head lice. When that didn't happen, he says, he decided to write the letter.

Another guy who wants to get rich.

Anyway, this will make a lot of peoples lives easier. Trust me.

Let me remind you (one more time) that Donald Rumsfeld has already made $1,000,000 off the sale of Tamiflu to the Penatagon.

Napalm and us

This is a picture after a napalm attack. Napalm is the combination of jet fuel and polystyrene to produce a material that is highly inflammable and sticks to people's bodies when it burns. It is, in my opinion, right up there with white phosphorus as a chemical weapon.

The United States is the ONLY country that has not signed the United Nations ban on napalm.

You would have thought that we would have learned from Vietnam. The above picture was very instrumental in turning the American people against this awful War, which we lost.

It is the height of irony that we are currently trying Saddam Hussein on the grounds that he used chemical weapons against his own people when in Fallujah we used both White Phosphorus and Napalm.

Our experience of History is that the worm always turns. I don't think we have ever fully paid for Vietnam and now we have this albatross of Iraq about our neck.

Ah! well-a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung."

Dear Pat, Assassinate Who?

Venezuela touts cheap fuel to US as Bush takes heat

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Venezuela on Thursday launched an ad campaign touting its cheap heating oil program for the U.S. poor as Washington faces criticism for doing little to protect consumers from high fuel prices.

The full page ad in some of the nation's top newspapers could irk the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, which has frequently clashed with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez over economic and foreign policies

Remember this from November 9?

Lee Raymond, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp., said he recognizes that high gasoline prices "have put a strain on Americans' household budgets" but he defended his companies huge profits, saying petroleum earnings "go up and down" from year to year.

Together the companies earned more than $25 billion in profits in the July-September quarter as the price of crude oil hit $70 a barrel and gasoline surged to record levels after the disruptions of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

And this:

IRVING, Texas - Exxon Mobil Corp. had a quarter for the record books. The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday high oil and natural-gas prices helped its third-quarter profit surge almost 75 percent to $9.92 billion, the largest quarterly profit for a U.S. company ever, and it was the first to ring up more than $100 billion in quarterly sales. (emphasis added)

The Season that Never Ends

Hurricane Epsilon Remains in Open Atlantic




We here at Dateline Central have it on good evidence that the Greek League players (That comes after the Arabic Names League) are pushing to have the season extended until January. Many of us think that this is just a preamble to their going for a full year season. Sort of like these guys:

Oh, those Rotterdam Dutch

ROSES THAT GLOW IN THE DARK, courtesy of the Dutch.

Highland Dutch, Lowland Dutch, Rotterdam Dutch and.... (well, you know). Now they have ROSES THAT GLOW IN THE DARK. Just think about this. You give your ladybug some flowers and she puts them in her room and goes to bed. In the middle of the night she wakes up and sees this glow over on the table. Sorry, it would scare the bejesus out of me.

And roses? roses? ROSES? What happend to the Rotterdamn tulips???

Bush: We are going to beat the insurgents

This is just insanity. How can you beat something that is as ubiquitous as fleas on a dog?

10 Marines Killed in Bombing Near Fallujah

This is infinitely sad. My condolences to the families of these men.

Attack of the Body Snatchers - Redux, Redux

Its bad enought that we have to deal with dissension in the ranks (Democratic Lawmakers Splinter on Iraq). But, when you have Republican operatives (clearly impregnated by Karl Rove) calling the shots:

Marshall Wittmann, a former Republican political strategist now with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said Pelosi may have resurrected her party's most deadly liability -- voters' lack of trust in the party on national security.

"If Karl Rove was writing the timing of this, he wouldn't have written it any differently, with the president of the United States expressing resolve and the Democratic leader offering surrender," Wittmann said, referring to Bush's top adviser. "For Republicans, this is manna from heaven."

He should know.

My Boo Boo

I inadvertently posted a picture of the Security Fence around Dick "Dick" Cheney's Eastern Shore residence. Here is the actual fence:


Sorry for the error.

Friday Spider Crab Blogging

Spider Crab, the new Super Hero.

Dick "Dick" Cheney in our midst

We here on the Eastern Shore are not happy. (Flight limits imposed over Cheney's Shore home). First we were inflicted with Donald Rumsfeld (let me remind you that he is making millions of dollars off of the Tamiflu sale to the Pentagon), and now we have Dick "Dick" Cheney. Why are we so lucky?

An alert reader suggests that not only does Dick have a house in our neighborhood, cutting off the air supply, but he may also be a more permanent resident after Barbara "Barb Wire" Bush gets through beating up on him. King George has already taken him out of the "Security Loop."

So, how do you get rid of an unwelcome neighbor? We could go to Goose Central in Canada and distribute brochures telling them that Cheney Land was an ideal wintering ground (don't laugh; dealing with goose poop on your lawn is pretty awesome). We could have every hunter on the Eastern Shore access to the adjacent property (trust me, more people are hit with stray buckshot around here than than the deer. A hell of a lot more than are hit by a desire to do good).

It is very simple, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney are obtrusive neighbors. We don't get anything in this County for having them here but a lot of headache. And now they may be permanent? God Bless!

Nuke them, Ariel

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel "Little Mermaid" Sharon said on Thursday Israel could not accept the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran, but steered clear of threatening military action against the Islamic Republic. "Israel, and not only Israel, cannot accept a situation in which Iran has nuclear weapons," Sharon told reporters.

This is getting serious

Juan Cole reports today:

BBC: If what you say is correct, in your view, is Dick Cheney then guilty of a war crime?

Wilkerson: Well, that's an interesting question - it was certainly a domestic crime to advocate terror and I would suspect that it is - for whatever it's worth - an international crime as well.

(Lawerence Wilkerson, former chief of staff for Colin Powell, former Secretary of State of the United States of America.)

This is not a talking air-head, this is not a lowly internet blogger, this is not Al-Qaida or Saddam Hussein. This is the former chief of staff for the Secretary of State of the United States.
This is serious.

Victory

Apologies to Goodwin from the Britannica:

and so Hitler, in accordance with his dictum that “Germany shall either be a world power or not be at all,” consciously resolved to preside over the downfall of the German nation. He gave inflexible orders whereby whole armies were made to stand their ground in tactically hopeless positions and were forbidden to surrender under any circumstances.

Donald Rumsfeld

I'm going to remind you every day that Donald Rumsfeld is making money (at least $1,000,000 so far) off the sale of Tamiflu. I will also remind you that the Pentagon, of which he is the chief, is stockpiling this drug.

Corruption:

In broad terms, political corruption is the misuse of public (governmental) power for illegitimate, usually secret, private advantage.

Behind the 8 ball

An alert reader directed us to this dissection of an 8 ball.

http://8ball.ofb.net/procedure.html

You know, the one that answers all your questions.

It occurs to me that this is a little like our President. A new answer for the same question every day.

Final Fantasy (cont)

Bush today:

The plan says increasing numbers of Iraqi troops have been equipped and trained, a democratic government is being forged, Iraq's economy is being rebuilt and U.S. military and civilian presence will change as conditions improve.

Delusion:

A delusion is commonly defined as a fixed false belief and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. In psychiatry, the definition is necessarily more precise and implies that the belief is pathological (the result of an illness or illness process).

Delusions typically occur in the context of neurological or mental illness, although they are not tied to any particular disease and have been found to occur in the context of many pathological states (both physical and mental). However, they are of particular diagnostic importance in psychotic disorders and particularly in schizophrenia. (emphasis added)

Vietnam:

After fifteen years of protracted fighting and massive civilian and military casualties, major, direct U.S. involvement ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. Fighting between Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces against the dominant combined People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Viet Cong forces would soon bring an end to the RVN and the war. With the Northern victory, the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) with a communist-controlled government based in Hanoi. (emphasis added)

We only have 12 more years.

Final Fantasy X (at least)

The fantasy continues:

The signs are clear, in any case, that a substantial withdrawal—or redeployment—is at hand. Top U.S. military officers have been privately warning for some time that current troop levels in Iraq cannot be sustained for another year or two without straining the Army to the breaking point. Rep. John Murtha's agenda-altering Nov. 17 call for an immediate redeployment was not only a genuine cri de coeur but also, quite explicitly, a public assertion of the military's institutional interests—and an acknowledgment of Congress' electoral interests.

You know, a bad novelist couldn't have come up with this scenario.

Tamiflu and Rumsfeld, too

This is just too much to be believed. I thought that our public servants were supposed to divest themselves of assets when they joined the Administration. (Of course Bill "Lookin more like Martha everyday" Frist is an exception):

NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.

The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer. (emphasis added)

The ensuing scramble for Tamiflu was in large part fueled by dear King George's announcement that we would stockpile it. So there, America. Take that.

They may not be able to govern Iraq, but they sure do know how to make money. (Usually dishonestly). And, least you think its confined to George the present, George the first's administration is not exempt:

Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.

A fish rots from its head.

What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.

Drowned

As most of us know, that estimable patriot, Grover Norquist, has only one great desire in life, to reduce the size of the Federal Government so small so that it can be drowned in a bathtub. Well, I'm not sure that New Orleans would make the cutoff for a bathtub, but the death by drowning of our Federal Government seems to have taken place there back in September. You remember, don't you? The hurricane? No? Oh, well.

There is a truly excellent article on the op-ed page of the Washington Post this morning by one Jennifer Moses entitled: Starving The Beast. Ms. Moses is too kind (or astute) to allude to Norquist's jibe. I'm not. Here is some of what she says:

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A primary goal of many Republicans is to "starve the beast" of federal government, the theory being that states and private enterprise, better equipped to respond to local needs than Washington ever could be, will at the very least take up the slack. So let's give credit where credit is due. I don't know how things are going in Fairfax County, Va., or Prince George's County, Md., but here in East Baton Rouge Parish, La., the beast is dead.

Well, Ms. Moses, the beast may not be actually dead where I live, but it is on life support with no advance directives. The safety net for the poor is just that, a net full of holes. (if you doubt this, note that the Republicans, including our congressman Gilchrist, just voted to screw the middle class and poor over food stamps, student aid, lunch programs and Medicaid. Oh, and they are going to take up the "tax break for the MacRichies" on their return from their break (symmetry there).)

Ms. Moses goes on to detail the horror that is Louisiana in the age of our dear King George (George III in England was mad, so they say. He lost a war against insurgents in a far land. Seems the insurgents used guerrilla warfare (Spanish for little war). Oh my, those guerrillas were US.)

Even before hurricanes Katrina and Rita exposed the Bush administration's cynical callousness toward our most vulnerable citizens, Louisiana in general and East Baton Rouge Parish in particular were home to some of the most profound poverty in the nation, along with all the social ills that poverty breeds. Where does one begin? With the staggeringly high rate of HIV transmission? The fact that Louisiana public school teachers are ranked 46th in the nation for average teacher pay? Our dismal high school graduation rates? Our soaring teenage pregnancy rates? Or the public schools, which on the whole are such a disaster that they can only be compared to a war zone?

She goes on:

The fact of the matter is that here in East Baton Rouge Parish, we've never managed to take care of our own, and now, in the wake of the storms, we're barely keeping our collective heads above water.

I could quote the whole article, its that good, but read it yourself. Near the end, she says this:

In the meantime, there are bills to pay. Just for starters, Louisiana owes FEMA $3.7 billion. Local governments with no tax base (their tax bases having been wiped out) are being forced to repay disaster-relief loans. The U.S. House of Representatives recently removed a provision from a bill that would have given Louisiana the opportunity to obtain federal bridge loans. New bankruptcy law makes no provision for victims of the storms. Not to mention the staggeringly high cost of electricity. (emphasis added)

This really cuts to the marrow of our so called Society. Why should the victims have to pay back that dysfunctional albatross FEMA? (Grover says: "Brownie, you did a really good job.") And what about that bridge in Alaska? Can't we build bridges in Louisiana for millions of people to cross and let the Eskimos still use their ferry? All 50 of them?

Jeez. (I am not outraged. Only sort of. That doesn't count.)

And what does the royal consort, Queen Laura say:

"Let them eat Brownies!"

Report Cards

The newest rage with insurance companies and other busy bodies into doctoring is to issue "report cards" on doctors (box scores?) Those with A's will be rewarded (read $$$$), those with F's will be punished (read $). This is just a really bad idea. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of doctors are competent. You can't practice medicine unless you pass very strict qualifying exams. While there are really some outstanding docs out there (a New York Review of Books article on Harvey Cushing tells us that giants did walk the halls), most of us, though we would like to believe otherwise, are so-so. No, we will never live in Garrison Keeler's Lake Woebegone where everyone is above average. Unfortunately, in the real world, some of us are below average.

So what's going to happen? Well, its already out there. If you do a procedure that is risky, then you are not going to do it on high risk patients. Can't screw up your ERA's. There is going to be a gigantic Will Rogers effect.


Will Rogers, you say. How did he get in this discussion? Well, Will Rogers once said (and I paraphrase): "If you move all the Oakies from Oklahoma to California it would improve the average intelligence in each State." This is a well known effect in medical research where people are always moving low risk patients to high risk groups in order to improve their results (i.e., more patients in the high risk group survive.) Not intentionally, mind you. No, someone would never do that intentionally!

So, how does this work out with docs? Well, if I did high risk procedures I would only do them on low risk patients. You know, docs still do have a choice of who they take for patients. If you make every doc take every patient that comes to them (not a bad idea) then you can't penalize them for bad outcomes. Its as simple as that. Not that it won't stop this activity.

Why can't we have a report card on politicians? Particularly those in the White House. I'll give you one guess on their grade.

Not Outrage, Bemusement

I actually feel for this guy:

Warren County Community College adjunct English professor, John Daly resigned last night before the school's board of trustees began an emergency meeting to discuss the professor's fate. On November 13, Daly sent an email to student Rebecca Beach vowing "to expose [her] right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like [Rebecca's] won't dare show their face on a college campus." In addition, Daly said that "Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors."

It does sounds like he said something stupid. After all, though he was exercising freedom of speech, the Young America Fascists don't see it that way:

"More colleges and universities need to follow the lead of WCCC and integrate tolerance training for insensitive leftists," says Young America's Foundation Spokesman Jason Mattera. "John Daly is yet another Ward Churchill. Academia is filled with intolerant leftists who openly show hostility toward conservatism." (emphasis added)

Insensitive leftists? I thought it was Kerry who wanted to be sensitive. You just can't win with these guys. (Oh, and Michelle was all over this like Chicken Pox. Gave her an oragami.)

Outrage

Its a funny thing about outrage, you can only keep it so long. After that, it goes floating off into space, not to return for a long time. Its like Kubler Ross's stages of grief, after outrage comes exhaustion. The problem is, of course, is that people like Ann "Lassie" Coulter

In the Iraq war so far, the U.S. military has deposed a dictator who had already used weapons of mass destruction and would have used them again. As we now know, Saddam Hussein was working with al-Qaida and was trying to acquire long-range missiles from North Korea and enriched uranium from Niger.

or Michelle "Screw um" Malkin:

Reason number 95,385 to keep your kids out of government schools

don't get exhausted. They live on their brand of invective. They can go on forever. Makes you wonder about the invasion of the body-snatchers (see below).

I need a dose of what P.G. Wodehouse called a "pick me up."

Peat - The New Wonder Fuel

Somewhere in the West of Ireland.

Warm glow of Irish peat takes edge off oil woes.

When I lived in Ireland a while back (a real while), there was a joke going around that the Irish were going to have have an SST (the Concorde had just come into service) that was fueled by peat. All those Brits out there smirked. Now that there is an oil crisis, many an Irish family will be warm and toasty (at least on their front side) this Winter when the temp drops while all us oil dependent Yanks are going to freeze our buns off.

Congress Helps Self to $3,100 Pay Raise

This is just unconscionable. First our local representative (Gilchrist) is one of the swing votes for the legislation:

House-passed measure attacks deficits by limiting spending for the first time in a decade on Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and other benefit programs that normally rise with inflation and eligibility.

THEN he allows a pay raise to go through without a glance.

These guys now make: $165,200 a year!
I want to know how he can come back in his district and face all the poor kiddies out here that rely on Medicaid for their health care?

Oh, I forgot, Scarlett,

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a vote for kids."

In actuality, it will be the pediatricians and family practice docs who will have to absorb some of this Medicaid cut. Who is going to deny care to children? (other than most of the specialists around here) Of course, poor people can afford copays for their kids antibiotics. Wouldn't want those pharmaceutical companies to have to decrease their profits, would we?

For those of you who are interested, Marcia Angell, one time editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, has done an excellent review of this situation in the New York Review of Books. Here is a tidbit:

The most startling fact about 2002 is that the combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7 billion). In 2003 profits of the Fortune 500 drug companies dropped to 14.3 percent of sales, still well above the median for all industries of 4.6 percent for that year. When I say this is a profitable industry, I mean really profitable. It is difficult to conceive of how awash in money big pharma is.

...snip...

According to a report by the non-profit group Families USA, the for-mer chairman and CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Charles A. Heimbold Jr., made $74,890,918 in 2001, not counting his $76,095,611 worth of unexercised stock options. The chairman of Wyeth made $40,521,011, exclusive of his $40,629,459 in stock options.

Tell that to the kiddies, Mr. Gilchrist

Pictures and Memory

Railroad Station - Milan, Italy

I'm sure that you are familiar with Bag News Notes, that truly excellent site that analyzes pictures in the news. It always has something pithy to say about the visual inundation that is now our daily bread. (Fifty years ago there was only grainy black and white photos in the newspapers. Of course there was Life magazine with its glossy excess. Television was still black and white, but it was there. This sea change in visual onslaught is rarely taken into account.)

I am reading Mindsight by Colin McGinn. The reason for this is that I am very interested in the question of "free will," and I clearly need to do some background reading. I have a very mechanistic view of "free will" that I want to go into here that would make Pharyngula proud. (You will have noticed that I put "free will" in quotation marks. This may give you a hint as to what I think of it.)

In any case, McGinn immediately starts off differentiating between pictures that we create in our mind (images) and pictures of reality (percepts). I suppose pictures like the one above of the Milan train station that appeared on Yahoo this AM would classify as a percept. After all, I didn't conure it up out of nowhere.

But, and it is a very big But (no pun intended), this picture conjures up a very strong memory from twenty-one years ago when I visited Milan with a friend. I mean, a memory so strong that it almost bowled me over when I saw the picture. Its not that anything really interesting happened to us (I seem to remember waiting endlessly for the train to Firenze and then it being crowded beyond belief. San Gimignano and driving wildly to the sea. Motorcycles, Volta, sleeping in an old nunnery, scandalizing the monks, writing a poem about it four years later, and...well, you get the drift). Needless to say, the images that are conured up by a percept are very strong, but still images.

So, I think that the relationship of images and memory is one that is so incredibly complex that I am anxious to get to that part in the book. I hope he looks at it.

Juan Cole and White Phosphorus

According to Neal Stephenson in the Baroque Cycle, White Phosphorus was discovered in the West about the time of Isaac Newton's rise to fame (1670). It was obtained from urine (true, urine has a lot of phosphorus, all that used up ATP). Professor Cole parses George Monbiot's analysis of the situation with respect to the current controversy about its use in the attack on Fallujah last year in the Guardian. I was struck by the following commentary:

[Cole: I agree that the invasion in 2003 was illegal. However, the assault on the guerrillas in Fallujah was not illegal. It had a UN Security Council resolution behind it authorizing Coalition troops to carry out such operations, and recognizing the transitional government of Iyad Allawi, which also backed the operation. What was done to Fallujah was so horrible that it is now often forgotten that there was every reason to think that the city was a base for the worst kinds of terrorism against innocent civilians in Baghdad and Karbala; there were very bad characters there. Black and white depictions of the Marines as villains and the guerrillas as good guys are silly and morally poisonous. If I had known the full extent of the damage that would be done to the city, I would have been against the Fallujah campaign; it is just terrible counter-insurgency tactics for one thing, and was a humanitarian disaster. But to say that the US military wilfully contravened its own regulations and knowingly broke US and international law on chemical weapons by deploying white phosphorus there would have to be proven from better evidence than has been presented.]

Since exactly what I am arguing seems to be hard for some readers to understand, I just have to repeat that I am challenging the narrative that the US government recognizes white phosphorus as a chemical weapon; that it is so categorized in the convention banning chemical weapons; or that US military commanders deployed it in contravention of US law despite knowing or believing that it was illegal. That is, if you actually put the officers in charge of the operation in the docket, I am saying that no conviction could be obtained. It is worth saying, because allegations to the contrary are being seriously made by serious persons.

I find it is always useful in situations like this to insert other names in the appropriate places and see how we would feel about it (most commonly I do this in the Israel Palestine conflic):

[Cole: I agree that the invasion in 2003 was illegal. However, the assault on the guerrillas in Grozny (Chechnya) was not illegal. It had a UN Security Council resolution behind it authorizing Russian troops to carry out such operations, and recognizing the transitional government of Putin, which also backed the operation. What was done to Grozny was so horrible that it is now often forgotten that there was every reason to think that the city was a base for the worst kinds of terrorism against innocent civilians in Moscow and Kiev; there were very bad characters there. Black and white depictions of the Russian soldiers as villains and the guerrillas as good guys are silly and morally poisonous. If I had known the full extent of the damage that would be done to the city, I would have been against the Grozney campaign; it is just terrible counter-insurgency tactics for one thing, and was a humanitarian disaster. But to say that the Russian military wilfully contravened its own regulations and knowingly broke Russian and international law on chemical weapons by deploying white phosphorus there would have to be proven from better evidence than has been presented.]

Since exactly what I am arguing seems to be hard for some readers to understand, I just have to repeat that I am challenging the narrative that the Russian government recognizes white phosphorus as a chemical weapon; that it is so categorized in the convention banning chemical weapons; or that Russian military commanders deployed it in contravention of international law despite knowing or believing that it was illegal. That is, if you actually put the officers in charge of the operation in the docket, I am saying that no conviction could be obtained. It is worth saying, because allegations to the contrary are being seriously made by serious persons.

I did this substitution because I disagree with Cole. His effort (and I respect it in some ways) was still an effort to make the ends justify the means. Why, when we have such other terrible weapons, do we go and do something as stupid as use White Phosphorus? And, I am sorry Professor, I have chemistry training, White Phosphorus is a chemical weapon.

Bomb Happy, redux

Recidivist once again points us to the irony:

Thatcher 'threatened to nuke Argentina'
Jon Henley in Paris
Tuesday November 22, 2005
The Guardian

Margaret Thatcher forced François Mitterrand to give her the codes to disable Argentina's deadly French-made missiles during the Falklands war by threatening to launch a nuclear warhead against Buenos Aires, according to a book. Rendez-vous - the psychoanalysis of François Mitterrand, by Ali Magoudi, who met the late French president up to twice a week in secrecy at his Paris practice from 1982 to 1984, also reveals that Mr Mitterrand believed he would get his "revenge" by building a tunnel under the Channel which would forever destroy Britain's island status.

And how will they get even with W? Build a tunnel to Crawford?

Special pre Thanksgiving Crab Blogging

Goodwin Redux

There is Goodwin's Law which states that:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.

I certainly have been guilty of that. However, more recently, I would modify the law to say:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of it involving the War in Iraq approaches 1.

DeLay and the Rubber Checks

According to the Washington Post this morning (dead tree edition), Tom Delay's lawyers have asked for a dismissal of the charges of money laundering against him because the Texas law states that the money has to be in cash or coins and his transferral of funds to the RNC (which later bounced back to his cronies, two of whom are his lawyers) was a check.

I kid you not.

And this is the guy that Cheney is going to fete. Maximum ticket so far is $4,200.

I forget what the word for over confidence is. Hubris?

Cat and Mouse

Why all this cat and mouse activity on the part of Bob Woodward? Why doesn't he just come out and tell us what happened? I mean, for crying out loud, someone might have broken the law! (Oh, excuse me, that doesn't seem to matter any more.)

In any case, its going to be a GREAT movie. Robert Redford can star as Patrick Fitzgerald (with a little makeup).

Bomb Happy

Recidivist directs us to this article in the British newspaper the Mirror:

PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.

...snip...

A Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been "humorous, not serious".

But another source declared: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."

...snip...

Bush disclosed his plan to target al-Jazeera, a civilian station with a huge Mid-East following, at a White House face-to-face with Mr Blair on April 16 last year (April, 2004).

Maybe the body snatchers really did knock on the White House door.