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Thursday, May 23, 2002

trade wars

"Most of the victims of the September 11 attack seemed tragically random -- they were just going to work. Not John O'Neill. Until last August, he'd been the FBI's top expert on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, a lead investigator of the USS Cole and African embassy bombings. Leaving the Bureau in frustration, he'd taken a job he thought of as retirement: World Trade Center security chief. But when he died it became clear: His own life contained as many mysteries as his enemy's."

ship of fools

"Normal service has resumed. After eight months off the air, American politics is back. Republicans are once more hurling abuse at Democrats, Democrats are slamming Republicans, while Capitol Hill and the White House have returned to their traditional posture: at loggerheads. At long last, the September 11 bubble of bipartisan consensus - in which even to question the Bush administration's war against terrorism was seen as unpatriotic - has burst."

recorder muzak

""We need to start to understand how we're going to have to reach our consumers with this new technology," said Mollie Weston, a product manager for Best Buy's image advertising. "It is going to force us to put advertisements out there that people are actually going to choose to watch.""

c c ryder

dr strangelove

"Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: My wife wants me to talk dirty when we make love, but I've never been able to do it. Any advice? �Joel Brennan, Syracuse, New York"

"Secretary Rumsfeld: Listen, anybody that can talk clean can talk dirty. Dirty talk is just like normal talk, except dirty. Your wife wants dirty talk, so give her dirty talk. Something like, "Those breasts are first-rate," or "I am going to give you a darned good orgasm," or, if she likes the rough stuff, "I'll tell you this, I am about to give you the business and I don't want to hear any guff about it."

open up

"Microsoft Corp. is aggressively lobbying the Pentagon to squelch its growing use of freely distributed computer software and switch to proprietary systems such as those sold by the software giant, according to officials familiar with the campaign."

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

ease off

"Ecstasy, the dance drug used by thousands every weekend, should be downgraded from the class A status it shares with heroin and cocaine, according to the results of a year-long official inquiry into Britain's drug laws published today...."

"The MPs also call for a radical extension of NHS heroin prescribing in Britain that would undercut the illegal market in class A drugs and drug-related crime, and for the immediate provision of European-style "shooting galleries" - safe-injecting rooms - that would take the most chronic addicts off the street."

newmanclature

another lefty blog worth noting -- nathan newman

new model army

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

extinction distinction

"The report will identify some 11,046 species of plants and animals known to face a high risk of extinction, including 1,130 mammals � 24 per cent of the total � and 12 per cent, or 1,183 species of birds."

"Human activities, from habitat destruction to the introduction of alien species from one area to another, are listed as the main causes of this dramatic loss in biodiversity. In the report, scientists also identify 5,611 species of plants known to be on the verge of extinction. They say the true figure is likely to be far higher, given that only 4 per cent of the world's known plant species have been properly evaluated."

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