My doctoral dissertation addressed what I called the “Frankenstein Complex.” So guess why this story bothers me.
Today, a scientific journal published a study that some people thought might never be made public at all.
The paper describes experiments that suggest just a few genetic changes could potentially make a bird flu virus capable of becoming contagious in humans, and causing a dangerous pandemic. Read more
Two people have been shot at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. The shooter has been identified as James Wenneker von Brunn, a man with ties to various right-wing hate groups. His Web site is here.
At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, we should note that since September 11, 2001, more innocent American citizens have been killed by anti-abortion activists and other fringe right terrorists than by al Qaeda. Oddly, we’re hearing no calls from Republican legislators or party leaders like Rush Limbaugh (or their Vichy Democrat allies) demanding that we invade Coeur d’Alene.
So are we serious about terror or not?
What is it with George Bush and his halfwitted predilection for declaring victory before the fight is over?
Bush speech hails Iraq ‘victory’President George W Bush has delivered a speech to mark the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Speaking at the Pentagon, Mr Bush said “removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision”.
And he went on to say that the recent “surge” of US troops to Iraq has brought about “a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror”.
Mr. President, if they’re still shooting at you, you should be careful about declaring victory. Read more
My wife and I had recently moved back to Denver from Boston and September 10 had been my first day at my new job with Gronstedt Group. When I got up that morning I flipped on the computer and when my home page loaded the first confused images were waiting for me. I flipped on the TV and called Angela. I guess I could describe for you what I saw and and felt, but you saw and felt exactly what I did, didn’t you?
I got very little done that day at work. Read more
Jim Booth does a nice job on The Dick and some of the lies he told a Wyoming Boys State crowd a few days ago. It’s asking a lot of a guy – even somebody as smart and thorough as Jim – to address every lie that Cheney tells, and I thought I’d take a moment and point out one that he missed.
In response to one boy’s question about whether the Iraq “war” could be won, The Dick reflexively trotted out the lie that he just … can’t … stop … telling!
“The fact of the matter is Iraq is part of the global war on terror,†he told the students. “And you’ve got to go back and look at what happened on 9/11.†Cheney recounted the tale of the late al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the administration’s great pre-war myths: Read more
I’m reading over a Federal Judge’s finding that the government can detain accused “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla indefinitely because the president “is authorized under the Constitution and by law to direct the military to detain enemy combatants.” And it brings me back to a question that has nagged at me ever since we declared war on terrorism after 9/11.
For starters, there’s the uncomfortable legal muddiness of cases like this one, as well as the issue surrounding our detention of all those al Qaeda POWs at Gitmo in Cuba. Read more
lullaby pit 