..or to not eat mammals. Three outdoorsman have died recently from a mad-cow like disease which was most likely caused by injesting infected deer and wild game like elk and caribou. Mad-cow and other similar diseases are actually caused not by viruses or bacteria but by self-replicating proteins called prions. The prions then are absorbed from the infected tissues and are transported by the lymph system to the brain where they cause the spongey holes characterisitic of these diseases.
General
03
Aug 02
Another case of Evil Blisters?
Another case of Evil Blisters in the Bush family? Former President Bush recovers from skin damage Seriously, I’m joking, but check out the photo it’s pretty damn gross.
03
Aug 02
Do you doubt the New World Order?
Read ’em and weep. It’s almost certainly more worse now. From the Friends Committee on National Legislation (A Quaker lobby in the public interest):
Military Spending Trends And Perspectives
March 2001
In 1999, the U.S. spent more than the next seven leading military powers, combined: $283 billion versus $265 billion.* Five of the next seven leading military powers are U.S. allies.
In 1999, the U.S. spent 2.6 times more on its military than the combined military expenditures of the next nine largest potential adversaries (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Cuba): $283 billion versus $109 billion.*
In 1999, the U.S., NATO, and other U.S. allies (Japan, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia) spent five times more on their militaries than the combined expenditures of the next nine largest potential adversaries (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Cuba): $551 billion versus $109 billion.
In Fiscal Year 2000, the U.S. spent $296 billion on the military. In FY01, the U.S. will spend an estimated $299 billion, and for FY02, the President has proposed outlays of $319 billion, to begin with. It is expected that additional funds will be requested for FY01 and FY02 following completion of the Administration’s review of U.S. military “needs.”*
In FY00, the U.S. spent total of about $547 billion for current and past military programs (includes all military spending cited above, plus mandatory payments to the military retirement system, foreign military financing, sales, aid and training, veterans benefits and services, and the interest paid on the national debt that can be attributed to past wars and military spending.)
Over the next ten years, the President’s plan calls for spending over $3.5 trillion on the military. This does not include any additional expenditures which he may call for pending completion of the military review.*
If enacted, the amount of the increase in military spending for FY02 over FY01 (i.e. $20 billion) will exceed the entire amount that the U.S. government spent on international diplomacy, cooperation, and humanitarian and development assistance in FY01 (i.e. $14 billion).
The President’s budget blueprint calls for cutting as yet unspecified programs in the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy (non-military), Interior, Justice, Labor, Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency in FY02.
03
Aug 02
Turkey abolishes the death penalty
Turkey’s parliament voted for sweeping reforms in order to join the European Union. I’m glad to see another nation coming to its senses by abolishing capital punishment. Among the reforms passed:
- end the death penalty
- allow Kurdish broadcasts and education
- end penalties for criticism of state institutions
- ease restrictions on public demonstrations
- ease restrictions for foreign organisations working in the country
- toughen measures against illegal immigration
- greater freedom for non-Muslim minority religions
02
Aug 02
The Forever War and the New World Order
Covert American assassination squads and jackbooted thugs back in vogue. Rumsfeld is pushing for aggressive, unilateral, and secretive actions by elite squads of US fighters against ‘terrorist’ forces. Ominous. From the Washington Post:
- Under the proposal, U.S. Navy SEALs would regularly board and search suspicious vessels on the high seas around the world even when permission is not granted. Until now, the military has conducted hostile boardings on only a limited basis, mainly off the Pakistani coast last winter and in the Persian Gulf in recent years to enforce the U.N. sanctions on Iraq. Holland also recommended that Special Operations troops should be given more latitude to engage in ground combat during anti-terrorist missions.
02
Aug 02
US Air Force’s finest drug users
Friendly fire deaths linked to US pilots ‘on speed’:
- American pilots in Afghanistan, blamed for a series of “friendly fire” incidents and devastating erroneous attacks on innocent civilians, were routinely provided with amphetamines to tackle fatigue and help them fly longer hours. Pilots were allowed to “self-regulate” their own doses and kept the drugs in their cockpits.
02
Aug 02
Red, white, and blue thugs
US soldier accused of assaulting Afghan prisoner:
- BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan: The US military has charged an American soldier in Afghanistan with assaulting an Afghan prisoner whose hands were bound, a US spokesman said on Friday. Colonel Roger King, a spokesman at US military headquarters at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, said the soldier was seen striking an Afghan detainee on the head with the butt of his M-4 carbine.
The soldier was not named while an investigation was made. “The prisoner’s hands were bound with plastic Flexi-Cuffs,” King said. “Another soldier saw it happen, and reported it.” Elements of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, were conducting operations outside Khost, in the eastern Paktia province, when the assault took place.
02
Aug 02
In case you couldn’t tell
I am an ENFP in case you couldn’t tell: alert, hyperbolic, and prone to paranoia. I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs personality test several times, and if you haven’t you should. Even if you think it’s no better than astrology as one of my humbug friends says. I’ve been on another Myers-Briggs kick so I thought I’d share this with you. If you’ve been coming to my site for a while this comes as no surprise. I am a textbook example of an ENFP. From Keirsey.com:
While the shy, seclusive Monastics (Myers’s “INFPs”) devote themselves largely to cultivating inner purity, the high-spirited Advocates (Myers’s “ENFPs”) turn their energies outward to investigate the public world and to develop their social awareness. Keirsey calls the Advocates “keen and penetrating observers,” who “can’t bear to miss out on what is going on around them.” And he has referred to them both as “Apocalyptics” and “Heralds” because of their fervent desire to spread the news of their experience of good and evil.
Brimming with life, Advocates live more spontaneously “in-the-flesh” than Monastics, and at first glance they can be rather easily mistaken for Artisans. But more than simply seeking the excitement of new experiences, Advocates are interested in understanding the significance of things, and more than simply taking people as they find them, Advocates care about nurturing ethical and sympathetic social relationships. To be sure (and unlike the impulsive Artisans), Advocates are serious and conscientious in their relationships, wanting to nourish human potential and to awaken what they believe to be the latent morality in their fellow-men. In a word, Advocates are romantic in their relation to the real world, seeing high drama in their quest for life, and hearing an irresistible call to enlighten those around them.
Although Advocates are thus more public-minded than the Monastics, and more confident in dealing with people, they are only slightly more directive in their private interactions. Like all the Idealists, Advocates want harmony above all else in their personal relationships, and they are far more inclined to “re-form” their loved ones by presenting them with information than by giving them commands. Nevertheless, Advocates can be quite coercive in their role-informative style of defining relationships. Advocates delight in free discussions of current issues — they burn with convictions and bubble with meaningful details, yearning to unveil what they believe to be the “true story” of significant events. At times, Advocates will champion a cause with such zeal that they can be carried away with the rightness of their position, and find themselves preaching to their friends and loved ones, trying fervently to convince them of their point of view. Indeed, in their penchant for investigating and reporting “the truth,” Advocates can quite easily strain their relationships by reading too much into their loved ones’ behavior, by over-interpreting the hidden meanings in their loved ones’ words, and by overstating their own romantic views as apocalyptic revelations.
So, basically, I’m crazy. Crazy like a fox!