Anthrax

The 2001 Anthrax attacks on the east coast of the US just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has long been an unusual mystery for many reasons. Among them:

• The very unusual choice of weapon: high grade anthrax spores
• The timing related to 9/11: one week later
• The bogus ties to Saddam Hussein in Iraq: press reports of bennonite in the anthrax connecting this to Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs
• The location: on the east coast of the US, near US government biological weapons labs
• The victims: two relatively obscure US senators in the minority party as well as media outlets, not well-known or powerful international leaders.
• The lack of fatalities: notes in the letters warned the victims and, somewhat bizarrely, even recommended specific medical treatments. Except for postal workers and others accidentally exposed, the attacks were relatively harmless, by design.

All of this indicates not a major foreign terrorist organization, but someone looking to very publically frighten US citizens. After a seven year investigation, the prime suspect has been cleared and won a large damages award. Shortly after this verdict, another suspect has committed suicide. Both worked in the same government weapons lab pinpointed by new DNA techniques as the source of the anthrax. All we need now is an Oliver Stone film on ths subject.

How I Didn’t Dismantle Iraq’s Army

An interesting Letter to the Editor in the New York Times. It concerns L. Paul Bremer III's article 'How I Didn’t Dismantle Iraq’s Army' on the decision to disband the Iraqi Army, largely viewed as a major blunder in the US occupation of Iraq. The 'letter' is in the form of a video by filmmaker Charles Ferguson that interviews high-level participants that refute much of what was published by Bremer. It seems some of the Neo-Conservatives who instigated and prosecuted this war are trying to rewrite history.

The Big Mac Index

The Economist has its Big Mac Index out again.

The Shock Doctrine

A short film by Alfonso Cuaron based on Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine".

Supreme Court Rules That Individuals Have Gun Rights

The conservatives at SCOTUS have overturned Washington D.C.'s ban on handguns. But they do recognize that guns are not appropriate in some places ... such as their own offices. Your office (and school and church, etc.) is another matter, it seems. I also wonder what is a 'firearm'. Are RPGs allowed? Bazookas? It would seem so. From Supreme Court Rules That Individuals Have Gun Rights:

Scalia said nothing in Thursday's ruling should "cast doubt on long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons or the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings."

Supreme Court Rules That Individuals Have Gun Rights

The conservatives at SCOTUS have overturned Washington D.C.'s ban on handguns.

George Carlin R.I.P.

It occurs to me that our fiercest social critics in America today are comedians. Today we lost our Solzhenitsyn, George Carlin. Here is my favorite bit of his from Gulf War I. It could easily apply today, by just changing the names. Wait. You don't even have to change the names ....