And On That Bombshell

Tonight BBC America begins to air I'm Alan Partridge, a hilarious sitcom featuring Steve Coogan's most famous creation, the failed chat-show host Alan Partridge.

In the sitcom he's working as an overnight DJ on Radio Norwich and attempting to get the BBC to renew his chat show (Knowing Me, Knowing You) for a second season. The first words of the first episode of the series are as follows, which Alan announces over the fadeout of a Joni Mitchell song:

"That was "big yellow taxi" by Joni Mitchell, a song in which joni complains that they paved Paradise to put up a parking lot, a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of Paradise, something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world."

Watch and enjoy, and thank the BBC.

By Design

H. Allen Orr in the New Yorker writes a good piece on Intelligent Design, including this bit:

In 1999, a document from the Discovery Institute was posted, anonymously, on the Internet. This Wedge Document, as it came to be called, described not only the institute’s long-term goals but its strategies for accomplishing them. The document begins by labelling the idea that human beings are created in the image of God “one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization was built.” It goes on to decry the catastrophic legacy of Darwin, Marx, and Freud—the alleged fathers of a “materialistic conception of reality” that eventually “infected virtually every area of our culture.” The mission of the Discovery Institute’s scientific wing is then spelled out: “nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies.” It seems fair to conclude that the Discovery Institute has set its sights a bit higher than, say, reconstructing the origins of the bacterial flagellum.

On so many fronts, this is the type of things we're up against. People with extreme agendas who are relentless in continuing to push for any crack they can to advance their cause. We think a stake was driven through the heart of an issue years or decades ago, but the retrograde groups take a new form, adopt new language and tactics, and keep pushing at every chink they can find. They're relentless and largely immune to reason. And they win a lot of battles, and may likely win some wars.

Jesusland's Air Force

You may recall that at the Air Force Academy, evangelical students and instructors are apparently harassing non-evangelicals. The Air Force ordered an investigation and a report.

Two prominent crtitics -- a Yale professor who documented harassment previously and a Academy alum who is Jewish, has a child currently attending, and who has reported harassment as well -- were not contacted during the investigation.

They really are intent on keeping the Air Force just for the red states it seems.

Crocodile Tears

Ken Layne on the Newsweek non-scandal:

"Beautiful: The White House just announced the total retraction was a “good first step.”

Ah, and Rumsfeld says “People need to be careful what they say, as well as careful what they do.” Thanks, you sociopathic bag of shit! I’ll keep that in mind!"

If the Pentagon had bothered to dispute the story when it was run by them before publication I'd have a harder time scoffing at this deplorable spectacle.

Layne nails quite a few aspects of this story, including the "crocodile tears shed by the Bush-apologist crowd."

Unpopularity Contest

Actually, it's no contest. From Editor & Publisher

Gallup: Bush Approval Rating Lowest Ever for 2nd-Term Prez at this Point: "It's not uncommon to hear or read pundits referring to President George W. Bush as a 'popular' leader or even a 'very popular' one. Even some of his critics in the press refer to him this way. Perhaps they need to check the latest polls.

President Bush's approval rating has plunged to the lowest level of any president since World War II at this point in his second term, the Gallup Organization reported today.

All other presidents who served a second term had approval ratings well above 50% in the March following their election, Gallup reported.

Presidents Truman and Johnson had finished out the terms of their predecessors, and then won election on their own for a second term.

Bush's current rating is 45%. The next lowest was Reagan with 56% in March 1985.

More bad signs for the president: Gallup's survey now finds only 38% expressing satisfaction with the 'state of the country' while 59% are 'dissatisfied.' One in three Americans feel the economy is excellent or good, while the rest find it 'only fair' or poor. "

There's more at that page.

Santorum's Mind Gutters Again

A New York Times article about the upcoming nuclear showdown in the Senate includes the following paragraph, with the creepy Santorum quote emphasized by me:

At Center of Senate Showdown, a Boxer Takes On a Surgeon - New York Times: "Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, said Senate minorities had previously restrained themselves from using the filibuster to block nominees with majority support. 'Senator Reid has refused to do that,' Mr. Santorum said. 'Now we are forced to do something that societies often do when people can't control their desires. We have to pass laws to stop their desires.'"

Report Due

I was under the impression that the Theresa Schiavo autopsy would be completed by early May.

This interesting profile of the pathologist performing the autopsy says his report will be ready in two to three more weeks. Of course, it's difficult to assess the competency of the pathologist from a news story, but I suppose it's good that he's depicted as being independent.

For those of you who missed the news in mid-April, there's this story: "State investigators found no evidence that Terri Schiavo had been abused or exploited by either side of her family, according to documents released by Florida's Department of Children and Families."

Those who were accusing the husband of abuse should apologize. Likelihood: minimal.

Mullah as Pimp

Pleasure marriages' regain popularity in Iraq

One thing freedom has re-introduced to Iraq: "Pleasure marriages," which can last from an hour to ten years. The Mullah gets a cut when he approves the contract.

Contracts for pleasure marriage strongly favor men.

Married women can't enter a muta'a, although a married man can. Men can void the contract at any time; women don't have that option unless it's negotiated at the outset. The couple agrees not to have children. A woman who unintentionally gets pregnant can have an abortion but must then pay a fine to a cleric

One thing many "kill the Arabs" idiots didn't realize was that Saddam, while a horrid scumbag, was also secular: he'd outlawed this practice.

Exorcism in Lieu of 911

Here's a PDF file of an unusual employment discrimination case in Michigan. Quoting:

One day, plaintiff [Michelle Howard, a Child Protective Services (CPS) worker for FIA (Family Independence Agency of Michigan)] made an unannounced visit to A.P.’s home. According to plaintiff’s report, A.P. had been drinking alcohol when she arrived. Plaintiff learned that plaintiff was prone to seizures and that doctors had given her a prescription to prevent them, but A.P. had not filled the prescription. Plaintiff also learned that that drinking alcohol enhanced A.P.’s susceptibility to seizures. Plaintiff’s report went on to state that, during the visit, plaintiff and A.P. discussed how church counseling and prayer could help A.P. and her relationship with her boyfriend. During this discussion, A.P. began to convulse and go into a seizure. Plaintiff believed A.P.’s behavior to be demonic in nature rather than medically related, so she prayed for A.P. during her seizure. In her deposition, plaintiff stated that when A.P. went into the seizure, she began to speak a different language and “come up off the floor.” Plaintiff admitted praying for A.P. during the seizure and pouring water on A.P.’s mouth. Plaintiff testified that she poured water on A.P.’s mouth to prevent her from swallowing her tongue, but later stated that she did not hold A.P.’s mouth open because A.P. did not appeared to be in any danger of swallowing her tongue. Plaintiff admitted that while she was sprinkling water on A.P.’s mouth, she stated, “Lord help her in the name of Jesus, bind everything that’s not like you, Satan the Lord rebuke you, loose your hold now.” The seizure lasted for approximately twenty to twenty-five minutes, during which time A.P.’s son periodically entered the room and plaintiff assured him that his mother would be fine. After A.P.’s seizure ended, plaintiff explained to her that her behavior appeared to be demonic and that she should pray about the situation.

Approximately one week later, A.P. contacted the CPS office and told plaintiff’s supervisor, Jan Kuirsky, that plaintiff had performed religious acts on her. During the course of several conversations with Kuirsky, A.P. complained that during her seizure, plaintiff laid her on the floor, pushed on her stomach, threw up on her, sprinkled water on her face, and told her that she had to drive the demons out of her. A.P. said that, after the seizure, plaintiff told her that she would return another time to finish driving out the demons. A.P. indicated that she had not given plaintiff permission to touch her or pray for her and that her son was terrified because of the incident. A.P.’s son told Kuirsky that he had given plaintiff water and a paper towel while plaintiff was trying to drive the demons out of his mother. In plaintiff’s answers to interrogatories, she denied that A.P. threw up or that plaintiff pushed on A.P.’s stomach and threw up on her. Plaintiff also denied telling A.P. that she would come back at another time to finish driving the demons out of her.

FIA fired Howard and she sued claiming the termination was due to religious discrimination. Fortunately, the Michigan Supreme Court opinion linked above finds that was not the cause of her termination.

I wonder if Dobson and his crowd would like these judges replaced?

Stephen Fry on Douglas Adams

The film version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [HGTTG] opens today in the US. I like HGTTG, but I'm not a fanatic (I haven't read Hitchiker or any other Adams books, and have only experienced HGTTG in radio and TV versions). I look forward to seeing the movie soon.

Also, I've never owned a Macintosh or Apple computer.

I am, however, a great fan of the incomparable Stephen Fry, who was a friend of Adams and provides the voice for The Guide in the movie. For those Adams, HGTTG, and Apple/Mac fanatics out there, here's a little sound file from a radio remembrance of Adams done shortly after his death. When the Macintosh went on sale in Europe, Fry and Adams bought the first three machines. You can listen to Stephen Fry for the rest of the story. [1 minute MP3 file, 600 kb in size]

Theocracy Datapoint

'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for April 25 - MSNBC Transcripts

Pat Buchanan:

"Look, John Paul II could not get approved for a federal appellate bench. He would get 100 percent negative vote by the Democrats, because abortion is an issue they won‘t let go of. Homosexual rights is an issue they won‘t let go of.

The Pope couldn't be a US Judge. Buchanan thinks that awful. I don't.

By the way, Buchanan's litany immediately continues with:

"Affirmative action is an issue, quota."

Pope JPII was against affirmative action? I tend to think Buchanan was just reeling off GOP talking points and trying to imbue them with the imprimatur of religion.

Sounds about right.

Against People of Sociobiology

Cathy Young responds to a response by Professor Stephen Bainbridge.

"Take a hypothetical nominee for the federal bench who has publicly stated that male dominance is essential to a healthy social system. He is (a) an evangelical Christian whose beliefs are rooted in his understanding of biblical principles, or (b) an agnostic whose beliefs are rooted in his understanding of sociobiology. It seems that according to Prof. Bainbridge, the Senate would be allowed to hold the nominee's views against him in scenario (b), but not in scenario (a). Personally, I think that this particular belief ought to disqualify him whether it's based on the Bible, the Koran, Confucius, Darwin, Nietzsche, or the Gor novels."

There's more good argument in the post I link to, but I find that paragraph particularly compelling. And, to name just one hot-button "religious" issue, there are atheists who are opposed to abortion rights.

Furthermore, it's not just vague "religious beliefs" that the current republicans are upset about, it's a fairly narrow range of beliefs (abortion and gay rights, mainly). There are quite a few deeply held religious beliefs that I'm pretty sure most Republicans would use to vote against a judicial nominee (opposition to the death penalty -- even for minors. Or drug use for religious purposes. Or, say, polygamy.)

Mystery Solved?

Why did US Olympic basketeball team perform so abysmally at the 2004 games?

Maybe some of the best players contributed to Democrats.

Slightly Modified

Vote right or go to hell: "Is it a sin not to vote for the people who are most religious?'"

[Only slightly modified.]

Changing the Rules

Seems like the Republicans can't stop changing rules that stand in the way of any impediments to raw majoritarian power. Filibusters are just the current issue. But Republicans aren't only changing rules that make big news. Part of the reason the filibuster debate raises such a ruckus is that other, lesser known rules have already been changed to benefit the Republicans.

For instance, consider the Blue Slip Rules, which formerly allowed off-the-wall judgets to be blocked before they got to the judiciary committe vote. Kevin Drum's analysis of the blue slip rule from 2003 is still worth reading. One of the current judicial nominees Democrats are objecting to, Janice Brown, is from California and certainly wouldn't pass the old Blue Slip rule with senators Boxer and Feinstein.

Also, Kevin looks at more ways the Republicans have changed boring Senate rules to consolidate their power.

It's worth remembering the changes in Senate rules that Republicans have enacted which marginalize anyone who doesn't agree with them. The filibuster is just the latest in a long line, but most of the prior changes were boring inside baseball.

All these smaller rules changes don't get much attention. But the changes make the filibuster more important, and give the Republicans a much smaller target to focus on and make a media storm about.

Don't Trust a Cardinal ....

... because they don't trust each other.

At Conclave, A Prediction And Promise

Following centuries-old procedures revised by John Paul in 1996, each voted by writing the name of his preferred candidate on a folded piece of paper, then held it up to show the entire assembly that it was a single ballot before depositing it into a urn.

Air Force Academy Again

Yahoo! News - Air Force Cadets See Religious Harassment

There have been 55 complaints of religious discrimination at the academy in the past four years, including cases in which a Jewish cadet was told the Holocaust was revenge for the death of Jesus and another was called a Christ killer by a fellow cadet.

....

"They are deliberately trivializing the problem so that we don't have another situation the magnitude of the sex assault scandal. It is inextricably intertwined in every aspect of the academy," said Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, N.M., a 1977 graduate who has sent two sons to the school. He said the younger, Curtis, has been called a "filthy Jew" many times.

But what's the real problem? Anti-Christian bigotry.

Two of the nation's most influential evangelical Christian groups, Focus on the Family and New Life Church, are headquartered in nearby Colorado Springs. Tom Minnery, an official at Focus on the Family, disputed claims that evangelical Christians are pushing an agenda at the academy, and complained that "there is an anti-Christian bigotry developing" at the school.

These people really are crazy. And they're running the country, and apparently the Air Force, too.

Not Boring

Congressional hearings are usually boring, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing today concerning the John Bolton nomination was not. Leah Rozen did a play by play that's worth reading, and this thread at DailyKos.com crackles.

The hearing will be repeated by C-Span 2 this evening at eight p.m. eastern. I'll be watching on cable but C-Span will stream it for web consumption -- it may subsequently be archived there, too.

Biden referred to hearing from people at Bolton's old law firm that they wouldn't have him back (or something similar to that). Does anyone know what the substance of that allegation is?

Not Going Where You Expect

This is an odd AP Headline: Man Living in Closet Charged in Homicide.

Those who mention it will probably crack wise about being closeted. But I'm not going to go there.

Here's the pertinent bit from the story:

A man was beaten to death after catching his wife's lover living in a closet in their home, police said Tuesday. Rafael DeJesus Rocha-Perez, 35, was charged with homicide in the slaying of 44-year-old Jeffrey A. Freeman over the weekend.

He'd apparently lived there for about a month.

That's nothing compared to the notorious "Bat Man" case of Otto Sanhuber, who lived in the attic above Fred Oesterriech and his wife Dolly. Otto was Dolly's lover.

He lived in their attic in Milwaukee for ten years Then, when the Oesterreich's moved to Los Angeles, he went and lived in their attic there, too, before shooting Fred Oesterreich to death.

A lot more information is at Crime Library in their section All About Otto Sanhuber.

And this strange story of Otto and Dolly all started about a century ago, when things were not as crazy as they are today. Or so some would have you believe.

Karen L. Brauer, Pharmacist for Life

"'Our group was founded with the idea of returning pharmacy to a healing-only profession. What's been going on is the use of medication to stop human life. That violates the ideal of the Hippocratic oath that medical practitioners should do no harm', said Karen L. Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life, who was fired from a Kmart pharmacy in Delhi, Ohio, for refusing to fill birth control prescriptions." - Washington Post, March 28, 2005.

Karen Brauer (included in this nice Media Matters post) has presented to the media the image of a concerned professional dealing with ethical issues. But that's only one side of a woman who has a very political side, tinged with a vivid interest in the sexual lives and practices of people with political opinions different than her own.

Long before she hit the mainstream media as President of Pharmacists for Life International, Ms. Brauer was active on a conservative women's website, now essentally dormant. But you'll still find her self-portrait from December 1997 (updated in 2001) there, where she describes herself as "Born conservative. Kinda' lean towards the Republican party, but lately they are getting awfully liberal." She was a supporter of Alan Keyes for President in 2000.

To get the full flavor of Ms. Brauer's thoughts, however, nothing beats reading her posts to the Usenet newsgroup alt.politics.rightgrrl, where she was an active and outspoken participant. Here's a sample of her comments posted Nov 22 1998 as "Responsibility/Contraception" :

For all the NOW gal types who might be lurking.... See what the Domestic Farm Animal style Birth Control has gotten you? When you get pregnant, you did it to yourself. The man does not participate. It's not his fault. That little head works by remote control, and is totally disconnected from the big head. It's just a whackoff. That comes from drinking the water that ya'll have been peeing the hormones into..... hehe, just kidding). But that "environmental hazard" is one reason that B.C. pills are still illegal in Japan!!!

NOW gals, ya got what you wanted. Total autonomy. So don't ask some of these guys for child support. Thanks for screwing things up for women who want their kids to have a daddy.

I'm all for chastity requirements in the military uniform code of justice. Dishonorable discharge and loss of benefits for anyone caught having sex outside of marriage. Male or Female. Whaddaya think??? Wouldn't a chastity patrol be wild! ;-) Finally: constructive employment for voyeurs!! And I'm for no sex at all for people who cannot accept a baby. Not even a B.J., 'cause they don't deserve one.

Ms. Brauer saves most of her sexually explicit fantasies for President Bill Clinton, but she openly expresses her interest in the sexual life of anyone who supports Clinton too. In a post titled "Sexual McCarthyism: Dershowitz's Clinton Spin" she writes:

Doesn't stuff like this make you wonder about the sexual practices of Dershowitz and other Clinton supporters??

There is a political rag in Cincinnati which calls Clinton supporters and contributors "all those people who would not mind seeing the first Phallus in their own daughters' mouths". Very gross, but it sorta makes sense!! The circulation of this political publication, the Whistleblower, threatens to outstrip that of the local news papers. hehehe

But she spends time thinking about the sexual proclivities of Republicans, too:

I'm sorta surprised that the Republicans aren't kinkier. I thought that once you got to Washington, you had to be a major pervert to be a member of the club. I've found the Republicans to be kinda boring. Some of them don't even fool around at all!! Poor Larry Flynt could only get a little dirt on less than 10 percent of them. That's below background level for Americans. Do you know what that means??? Statistically, their personal lives have been shown to be cleaner on average than the people that they serve. Thanks to that old Jabba the Hut, pervert, Larry Flynt. I think he inadvertently did conservatives a favor.

But you find a Republican that has perjured himself, obstructed justice, and raped at least one woman, and I will call for the guy's resignation right away, and ask Dr. Lorena Bobbitt for a surgical consult .........;-)

Ms. Brauer's explanation for why so many people opposed Clinton's impeachment? You'll find it here in "allgirlthang/Hostile boyz"

My guess is there are a few men out there who might have had a little problem with date rape. Things mighta gotten a little out of hand at the frat house... Know whut I mean???? A little cognitive dissonance is going on.

You know why there is so much excusing of Clinton's behavior??? All those rich boyz (daddies bought 'em off instead of raising them) remembering their college days, or maybe even their current behavior. Hard to get down on a guy who is only acting the way that they do... Love listening to all those liberal lawyers finding excuses for him.
Love listening to the nina-burleighs and rich boyz in the media getting all over Linda Tripp for turning against a "friend" who was trying to get her to commit perjury. HA!

In response to a post about Neil Horsley , author of the infamous Nuremburg Files website that listed personal information about physicians who performed abortions and marked through their names when they were murdered, Ms. Brauer defends him, denies that he advocates violence, and compares her own situation to his:

hehe, we all know that he has the site up there to intimidate the abortionists and make them paranoid that they are being judged. When a person becomes famous for any reason, info about them and their families is publicized in the media. I guess that abortion is a gross reason for a person to become a public figure, huh?

. . . . .

As of 1996 I was out about 50,000 bucks a year in salary due to proaborts deciding that I couldn't practice pharmacy unless I abort. (Do you think that is extortion? ) Also, it has made me a little bit of a public figure, and that leads to a fair amount of opposition too.

. . . . .

That's the thing. The Nuremburg site does not advocate violence. Horsley does an amazing job of walking that fine line and really sending the media up a wall. He is a really interesting guy to watch. When the media publicizes his site, it serves his purposes. Also, you have to admit that with FACE and RICO laws, the abortionists have stripped prolifers of a lot rights of free speech and assembly. What do you think will happen when prolifers have no legal way left to oppose abortion?? The media serves my purposes with their hysteria, by scaring all the med students away from abortion practice. Abortion is aborting itself ;-) Kinda cool huh???

Here she is hoping Jesus will fill her in about Clinton's "little head." Her curiosity about Clinton's penis is prodigious:

I'd ask to meet with Jesus Christ. Because he could tell me how a guy like Clinton can live, with only his little head in a state of potency. And maybe he could tell me if there is anything good about Bill, 'cause I don't think so. hoHO

Moving from Usenet to the Web, Ms. Brauer used to have a websites she called "Hoosier Pharmer" which peddled rants typical of the most rabid wingnuts. The site has disappeared from its old URL, but is still available via archive.org.

Again, her interest in the sex life of others is on display:

FREE PORN ON THE WEB
COURTESY OF OUR PRESIDENT, SICK WILLY !
READ THE STARR REPORT !
Don't let Bill kiss the babies!
You don't know where that boy has been!
Check out Footnote 210!

Since Ms Brauer seems to be getting fairly fawning media treatment, and since she's defined herself as a "public character," I hope those questioning her will dig into her online writings a bit and ask about them. A few different posts are featured in this Daily Kos Diary.

[For those wanting to check out her posts on Usenet, search Google Groups for her old email address, which was kbrauer@one.net. There's more to marvel at.]

Pharmacists for Life

The group that's trying to make it commonplace for pharmacists to refuse service to women who want birth control (not just, say, RU-486, but plain old "the pill" and other contraceptives) is Pharmacists for Life (PFL).

The founder of the group is Bogomir (M.) Kuhar, a pro-lifer so radical that he's anti-birth control. Kuhar has calculated that many millions of lives are "terminated" each year by people who use contraceptives.

Dr. Bogomir Kuhar, a pharmacist concerned about chemical abortion, has calculated that in combining all forms of induced abortion -- the IUD, Depo-Provera, Norplant, surgical, and the Pill (and injectables, implants, and oral products that work in a similar fashion), between 9.6 and 13.4 million young lives are terminated in the U.S. alone each year.

Kuhar appears to have been involved in pro-life Catholic movement since at least the late eighties. On that single page he is identified in several diferent ways, including:

• Bogomir M. Kuhar
  
• Bogomir Kuhar PhD
  
• Bogomir Kuhar PD
  
• Bogomire Kuhar PD
  

The Pharmacists for Life group, though they claim to represent "over 1600+ pharmacists, and many hundreds of lay supporters, in the USA, Canada and worldwide," seems to be run out Powell, Ohio, probably in the Kuhars' home.

The contact phone (740.881.5520) and post office box for PIL is the same as the vitamin-selling business that the Kuhar's have at kuhar.com (known as Life Enterprises, though sometimes identified as Pro-Life Enterprises). Presumably the Marcia Kuhar listed there is Bogomir's wife.

She's also used the same PO Box and phone number as her contacts listed on the Central Ohio Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc., also known as COAOHN.

With this single phone number being used as Marcia's contact number, PFL's contact number, and the businesses' contact nubmer, PFL is probably running out of their house, which also houses their business.

And, as Media Matters has pointed out, "Pharmacists for Life's most recent IRS filings indicate that the organization has no paid employees and raised and spent less than $30,000 in 2003 (the most recent year for which figures are available)."

Good for them in one way -- at least for now they're apparently not an astroturf group, supported by a big PR firm but trying to appear home-grown. But it's bad for them in another way -- they're tiny and represent a very small number of religiously hyper=zealous pharmacists who do not want women to receive birth control.

Media Matters has also discussed Karen L. Brauer, the pharmacist fired by Kmart for lying to a patron, refusing to fill her prescription, and refusing to forward her prescription to another pharmacy. She's a piece of work and we'll have more about her soon. [Update: The post about Karen Brauer is up now.]

Visitation

Kieran Healy's written the only thing I'm likely to remember from today's coverge of the death of Pope John Paul: When the Pope came to Ireland. Part memoir, part social history, stirringly written.

One wonders how much the changes he mentions have to do merely with the events he cites, and how much impact the remarkable economic growth in Ireland has contributed, too.

Good wishes to all Roman Catholics on this day, though I don't generally support the power or purposes of the Vatican.

Get Me Rewrite

Washington Post headline:

DeLay Wants Panel to Review Role of Courts

Alternate headline "Criminal Blasts Courts."

Kontraceptive Kraziness

Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte is justifiably exuberant about Gov. Rob Blagojevich approving a law that requires pharmacists to fill prescriptions for birth control. But one has to despair that we've come to a state where that is necessary.

I see that this ridiculous witholding of contraception is being legislated in some states.

According to the NWLC, four states currently have passed laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions based on religious beliefs, while four states have had legislation introduced that would require pharmacists to fill prescriptions for contraceptives.

I'm continually amazed that these lunatics are succeeding, even briefly, in dragging the US back decades. It's disheartening and infuriating.

Can allowing pharmacists to shirk their duties be a popular move? Even if cast as a "pharmacist's rights" issue, I can't imagine enough people hate contraceptives that restrictions on them wouldn't cause a backlash, but of course my imagination has been lacking in the past.

I can't recall where I read some wag suggesting this, but a way to a nice sinecure could be to convert to Christian Science and become a pharmacist (possibly not in that order). Then you could conceivably refuse to fill any prescriptions, sitting on your butt while the pharmacy presumably couldn't fire you for your religious objections. You may need to claim that you're part of a radical Christian Science sect that is against anyone using medications.

There are kooks and quacks everywhere you look -- often running the show.

Much more from Majikthise.

Pear Tree Productions Presents...

I noticed that BBC America has just begun to air season one of the television version of Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge (played by Steve Coogan).

As Partridge goes, it's nearly up there with the "Knowing Me, Knowing You" radio series and the "I'm Alan Partridge" mockumentary series. Quite fun. Check your local listings.

Not Reality-Based

From the AP: "Jacobson, who has been playing religious and patriotic music outside the hospice for the past three days,said he didn’t really believe that Terri was dead.

“I’m not believing the report of man,” the bearded man said. “God will raise her from the dead, and all the world will see it.”

Taking My Oyster for Walkies

A bit too much seriousness here, so I'm going to point to an MP3 file of a funny old song.

I'm Taking My Oyster For Walkies (MP3 file, mono, 3:32 min; 2.5+ MB.) written by Bill Oddie.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

From the BBC radio show "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again" aka ISIRTA.

Though there's conflicting information, I believe this was originally broadcast April 1964.

The identity of the singer is also at issue. The announcer introducing the song in the program says the singer is [Bill] Oddie, though in looking around the internet, the singer of this song is usually identified as Graeme Garden. [Edited to add: I'm sure now that the singer is the composer, Bill Oddie--thanks to Jess and Paul Haden in comments for their knowledge.]

I don't know these things. But I do know that I enjoy this very silly song.

Maybe later I'll point to "It's a Long Way From Amphioxus."

---Edited August 2006 to add lyrics:
Well over a year later, this page has a few visitors. I wanted to make out the words as well as I could anyway, so I may as well post my transcript below.

Here are the lyrics as I hear them. There is one garbled line, because I'm sure that I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again didn't have a lot of rehearsal time. Still, it's a hilariously silly song.

I'M TAKING MY OYSTER FOR WALKIES
by Bill Oddie
-----

I often go out walking on a  Sunday
I like to take a stroll down by the sea
There's a little shellfish stall
Down by the harbor wall
And there I stop and say hello
and think of how a year ago...

I bought myself a quite delicious oyster
I thought I'd save it for a special day
But gradually I found
It was nice to have around.
So now on Sundays if it's dry
the people stop and stare as I [... am ...]

[chorus]
Taking my oyster for walkies
She's really incredibly sweet
We walk very slow
because as you know
an oyster has very few feet [...  if any...]
I'm talking my oyster for walkies
and my oyster is taking to me.

{whistle and confusion interlude}

I admit I've had affairs with other molluscs
Well, mussels have a certain sex appeal
And I well recall the twinkle
When I first saw a 'winkle
And surely nothing can conceal
The candor of a jellied eel

Alright! I caused a scandal with a scallop
But I'm really not so shellfish anymore
Cause a lovable crustacean
Has expended my frustration
You can stuff your cockles
'Cause instead I'm happy in my oyster bed

[Chorus]
I'm taking my oyster for walkies
How I wish I could marry the girl
If only she could see we'd
be as happy as could be we'd
have an excellent chance of a pearl.. (let's try)
I'm taking my oyster for walkies
And my oyster is taking to me.

{Chorus}
Taking my oyster for walkies
She's the daintiest dish ever made
With barnacles on it
in her oyster bonnet
she's the queen of the oyster parade
[she's lovely]

I'm taking my oyster for walkies
and my oyster is taking to me

[Coda]

Well I've been locked up with a limpet
And I thought it was swell
I've had relations with a lobster
And that was all very well
But ooo you should see my oyster
When she comes out of her shell

I'm taking my oyster for walkies
and my oyster is taking ..
my oyster is taking..
my oyster is taking to me

[spoken]
Give us a kiss (oyster kiss and cough) .. oooh, sorry.

Thank you Bill Oddie, for this spectacular song .. and for Springwatch.

-- Update Dec. 2009

Thanks to several commenters I've cleaned up and filled in one or two of the lines. Kudos to Martin Keegan and ChrisTheNeck.

This is the only version I've ever heard. I caught it on a BBC 7 rebroadcast of ISIRTA and I couldn't make out every last jot of it. It's a pleasure to get the help from people with a bit more familiarity with the tune.

I would say that it's great people are visiting this over four years after I posted it -- and it is-- but of course it's even better that people are still searching for this small silly song over 45 years after it was broadcast on a BBC comedy program. Quite lovely. -- riffle, December 2009

More Doctors

One more post about physicians involved in the Schiavo case, since we've covered Hammesfahr pretty thouroughly. There are two more doctors who go against prevailing scientific and medical thought:

1) Dr Fred Webber
Webber played a part in an earlier part of the legal saga in this case. In June 2001, Dr. Fred Webber wrote a very schematic affidavit. The courts acted, apparently based largely on this affadavit. Webber's affidavit was removed from the Schindler's site but is available here.

A few points about Dr. Webber:
* His degree is as a D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathy). While not a slam, it's worth noting that he is not a Doctor of Medicine (MD).
* He's not a neurologist. In his remarkably skeletal affidavit, he makes no claim to be a neurologist.
* He states in his affidavit that he had not examined Ms. Schiavo.
* At the time he wrote his affidavit, Webber was working for the less-than-stellar Dr. Hammesfahr.
* After writing this affadavit and getting the judicial wheels to move, amazingly he did not appear in the trial subsequently. Very odd indeed, as the Guardian ad Litem noted:

By May of 2002, the physicians were selected by both sides but no agreeement could be reached about a fifth, so the court selected one. Curiously and surprisingly, Dr. Webber, who had served as the basis for this entire process at the 2nd DCA did not participate in the exams or the procedure.

* Dr. Webber says that he practiced in "the Minneapolis area" from about 1975 until sometime in the year 2000. Apparently the only physician licensed in Minnesota with the name Fred Webber is Fred Lawrence Webber. If this is indeed our affiant, then the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice lists that he has an (unspecified) disciplinary action. (To confirm, go here http://www.docboard.org/mn/df/mndf.htm, and search for either

Licensee Name: Fred Lawrence Webber
or
License Number: 22801 )

* As a further note, the Guardian ad Litem identifies him as an osteopathic physician, which matches with the Minnesota physician (D.O.) who has the disciplinary action noted above.


2) Dr. William S. Maxfield.

* Dr Maxfield is not a neurologist, either. He's usually cited in press reports as a radiologist and/or a hyperbaric physician. Here's his CV.
* His affadavit (as above, it's removed from the Schindler's site but is available here) doesn't report any evaluation based on radiology. It begins: "As provided in the court order, I visited Terry Schiavo at your [ the Schindler's] request to make an independent assessment of her physical status without actually examining the patient. " So he admits he didn't examine Ms. Schiavo.
* He then reports a series of observations and extrapolations that do not rely upon his expertise as a radiologist or hyperbaric doctor.
* It does, however, appear that Dr. Maxfield is hoping to push hyperbaric therapy, ("I would then suggest a trial of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for one or two sessions with the SPECT brain scan then being repeated. ") which, as the Judge noted in his opinion, has no tested application to Ms. Schiavo's condition.

Once again, one has to appreciate Judge Greer's ability to assess untested therapies versus tested ones.

But the thin empirical gruel from these fellows feeds many news cycles. I would bet, however, that those commentators who find these guys compelling in the case of Ms. Schaivo would somehow find other practitioners to treat their family members if they were in medical crisis.

Bernadine Healey: will you hire Drs Hammesfahr, Webber, or Maxfield to treat you or your relatives when they have a serious neurological disorder?

I sure wouldn't, but then I haven't been implying that their work had any empirical validity. Over to you, Dr. Healey.

Hammesfahr Redux

My post about Dr. Hammesfahr below has provoked some questions via email. So, before I stop writing about him I thought I'd encapsulate more his story in a bullet-pointed post here. Some of this is in my previous post, but some is new.

• Yes, Dr. Hammesfahr is an M.D., and he's a board certified neurologist.
  
• No, he was not truly nominated for a Nobel Prize. At this writing, his claim of being Nobel Nominated is on his web page, meaning he is forwarding this misinformation himself.
  
• He was disciplined by the Medical Board of Florida for charging for services he did not provide.
  
• He has not published in legitimate peer-reviewed journals. Indeed, a 1999 St. Petersburg Times piece notes "His articles have been turned down by well-known medical journals," so it's not for lack of trying.
  
• He is listed as one of the "Promoters of Questionable Methods" on Quackwatch.com, and an analysis of his treatments is posted there as well.
  
• The only journal he's published in is one which is on a domain that's registered to his office (and for which the administrative contact phone number is his own office phone). He is on the editorial board, as is an employee of his and another Hammesfahr, likely a relative. The submission guidelines for this journal are laughable to anyone who has actually seen guidelines for a true medical or scientific journal.
  
• The therapeutic regimen he has proposed has not been tested in any rigorous scientific manner; everything I've seen written about it is anecdotal.
  
• He makes wild claims about his therapy being useful for a wide variety -- literally dozens -- of etiologically unrelated neurological and psychiatric disorders, without scientific validation.
  
• He has not treated Teresa Schiavo: he examined her as one of five MDs which a Florida court asked to evaluate her. Two MDs were selected by Michael Schiavo, two (Hammesfahr, a neurologist, the other a radiologic/hyperbaric physician) by the Schindlers, and one neurologist was appointed by the court. All the neurologists except for Hammesfahr found her in a persistent vegetative state (the hyperbaric MD agreed with Hammesfahr that she wasn't). Here's what Theresa Schiavo's Guardian ad Litem (his report [PDF] is extremely worthwhile reading) wrote about the medical evidence of these five physicians (PDF File; pp. 16-17):
  

  The scientific quality, value and relevance of the testimony varied. The two neurologists testifying for Michael Schiavo provided strong, academically based, and scientifically supported evidence that was reasonably deemed clear and convincing by the court. Of the two physicians testifying for the Schindlers, only one was a neurologist, the other was a radiologist/hyperbaric physician. The testimony of the Schindler’s physicians was substantially anecdotal, and was reasonably deemed to be not clear and convincing.
  

  The fifth physician, chosen by the court because the two parties could not agree, presented scientifically grounded, academically based evidence that was reasonably deemed to be clear and convincing by the court.
  Following exhaustive testimony and the viewing of video tapes, the trial court concluded that no substantial evidence had been presented to indicate any promising treatment that might improve Theresa’s cognition. The court sought to glean scientific, case, research-based foundations for the contentions of the Schindler’s physician experts, but received principally anecdotal information.
  

  Evidence presented by Michael Schiavo’s two physicians and the fifth physician selected by the court was reasonably deemed clear and convincing in support of Theresa being in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for improvement.
  

• On his webpage, Hammesfahr posts the following as an apparent selling point for his therapy:
  

  
  

  
  

  
  In fact, this quote is taken from the disciplinary action (PDF of the record of that proceeding) that found Hammesfahr had not provided services for which a patient had paid. Another issue in the disciplinary action was whether Hammesfahr had actually engaged in false advertising by claiming his results were "peer-reviewed" and for saying he was the first to use this treatment to help patients. The paragraph from which Hammesfahr extracted the quote above is, in full:
  

  
  

  
  

  
  The Judge essentially finds that, since Hammesfahr had run his so-called results by some friendly peers, he had actually had his results "peer-reviewed" in that narrow sense. And, since he was the first (and at the time, only) to use his therapies and some of his patients got better during the time he was treating them, the strict wording of his advertising was true.
  
  It's hard to believe, but the guy is using that snippet, from a Judge in Florida which indicates that no other doctors are using his therapy, as a testament on his webpage. Amazing.
  
  Also, the judge basically finds that his therapy is "alternative," which is protected under Florida law about alternative medicine. Thus we begin the slide to allowing doctors to use untested therapies.

Finally, to address a broader issue, many people seem to wonder why scientific evaluation should be necessary, if it seems that Dr. Hammesfahr is "helping people."

Since Dr. Hammesfahr resorts to anecdote, I'll illustrate the issues that arise with an anecdote. Let's say a patient was seen by Dr. Hammesfahr and given a treatment regimen to take home and have her physician implement. When this patient returned home, her doctor refused to administer the drugs Hammesfahr had indicated. She improved greatly anyway.

Would she likely have improved even more without paying for Hammesfahr's therapy? Would she have improved less, or the same amount? Would his therapies impede or improve her progress? These questions cannot be answered by a collection of anecdotes, no matter how high they mount. They must be assessed with rigorous, scientifically oriented, peer-reviewed studies.

Then, at least those who pay Dr. Hammesfahr money would know if they're throwing it away.
-----

UPDATE: Here's a report by Dr. Ronald Cranford about the Schiavo case. It's interesting overall, and it includes lot more information about Hammesfahr, as well as other health care personnel who diverge from the overwhelming medical consensus in the case. Predictably, Dr. Cranford has been slimed for his medical expertise. I suppose he's not surprised.

FURTHER UPDATE: A look at two other doctors hired by the Schindlers. And a challenge to Dr. Bernadine Healey.

Dr. Hammesfahr, Clown or Quack?

David Brock's Media Matters has written about some issues with William M. Hammesfahr, the MD who claims that Terry Schiavo's condition is "not that bad." He's also been disciplined by the Florida Board of Medicine. [It seems it's pretty hard to get disciplined in Florida, but that's pure hearsay. ] Hammesfahr was retained by Terry Schaivo's parents, the Schindlers, ito evaluate her in 2002. And here's a great post about his faux Nobel Prize "nomination."

Quackwatch.org keeps an eye out for questionable medical therapies. Lo and behold, they have a piece up, apparently from 2000, about Dr Hammesfahr's therapy. The analysis is not laudatory. It's also written by a Assistant Professor of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine, no less.

It concludes: "The theoretical basis for Hammesfahr's vasodilation treatment for stroke clashes with current knowledge about stroke physiology. In fact, the prevailing current belief is that such treatments should worsen stroke outcome, not improve it. I believe that vasodilation treatment for stroke patients should be done only as part of an approved peer-reviewed protocol that includes informed consent about the treatment's experimental status and possible risks. Because of the potential risk, I doubt that an institutional review board would permit such a study unless animal studies can demonstrate that the treatment is safe and potentially useful."

Hammesfahr is listed on Quackwatch.org's Promoters of Questionable Methods page.

Also, look over Dr. Hammesfahr's own website. It's got a few things that remind one of quackery. One is that his treatment doesn't just work for one disorder, it works for many.

In 2000, this work resulted in approval for the first patent in history granted for the treatment of neurological diseases including coma, stroke, brain injury, cerebral palsy, hypoxic injuries and other neurovascular disorders with medications that restore blood flow to the brain. It was extended to treat successfully disabilities including ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette's and Autism as well as behaviorally and emotionally disturbed children, seizures and severe migraines. [emphasis added]

It's a floor wax and a dessert topping for damaged brains!

Another hint of the questionable nature of his therapy is the section purportedly giving supporting evidence for success. His site has two pages of what he calls "reviewed results." One of these pages consists of five letters (written by three different individuals) touting his treatment. The first four letters have -- to say the least -- methodology that's difficult to divine.

Letters three (2 pages long, from 2001) and four (one page long, from 1999) on that page are written by a psychologist named Alexander T Gimon. These letters, despite their indecipherable methodology, claim to report results of Dr. Hammesfahr's treatment, tout his "successes" and claim he "discovered" that strokes could be treated with cardiac drugs. By coincidence, Alexander T Gimon appears as coauthor on a paper with Hammesfahr from 1996-7 at a purported peer-reviewed medical journal named L ifelines. (More about Lifelines below.)

The last letter on this page , relating a visit made to Hammesfahr's office, hardly even rises to the level of anecdotal. It's from a professor (a podiatrist and osteopath, not an M.D.) at Nova Southwestern University's Department of Family Medicine. Nova Southwestern doesn't offer a Doctor of Medicine degree. (Nova trains osteopaths, pharmacists, optometrists, allied health practitioners, dentists, and "biomedical scientists." The terminal degree at Nova's College of Medical Sciences is a Masters in Biomedical Science.)

Hammesfahr's "peer-reviewed" page consists of links to ten items he's submitted to a medical journal called Lifelines at Medforum.com. Lifelines doesn't appear to have a very rigorous review process, but I'd be interested in what others may know about the site. It also has a strange dating: for the Hammesfahr/Gimon paper I mentioned above, the copyright is 1996-7, but there is a note that it was revised in 2002. I'm not sure how a scientific journal can proceed when you can revise papers six years after they've been published with no indications of the changes.

Lifelines claims to be "one of the longest lived Peer Reviewed Medical Journals in existence." Huh? That comment is just bafflingly ludicrous, even as a flackish statement.

It appears that Lifelines is the only journal in which Dr. Hammesfahr has published. He has no writings indexed at the National Library of Medicine's PubMed, though others with his surname are listed there. However, he has been on Fox News.

-------

Update: A bit more on Lifelines, the dubious medical journal which is the only place Hammesfahr has published.

• Dr. Hammesfahr is on the Editorial Board of Lifelines.
  
• Another Hammesfahr, Dr. J.F. Hammesfahr, is also on the Editorial Board.
  
• Alexander T. Gimon, the psychologist mentioned above who wrote the "evaluation" letters on Hammesfahr's web page and who coauthored a paper with Hammesfahr, is also on the Editorial Board.
  
• Every member of the Editorial Board is from Florida (many from Tampa or St. Petersburg area), with the exception of J.F. Hammesfahr, who practices in the neighboring state of Georgia.
  
• One member of the editorial board, Donald D. Adkins, an EEG Tech, lists on his C.V. that he is employed by William Hammesfahr.
  

And to go from the ridiculous to the abjectly hucksterish, the site that hosts Lifelines is medforum.com. Here's a screenshot of the registry information for this domain:

600 Druid Rd. E in Clearwater is also the office address listed in the c.v. of Dr. William Hammesfahr, M.D. The phone number and fax number listed for the adminstrative contact are those of Hammesfahr's office.

This looks like a vanity medical faux-journal that Dr. Hammesfahr is running out of his own office.

Finally, to get a whiff of the type of MD we're dealing with here, look at his Lifelines journal article titled To a new understanding of personnality,behavior and neurological disease [sic].

Yes, that title is howlingly grandiose, especially considering the mispelling. But look at the list of disorders he claims to treat with vasodilators. From the footnotes (we like how he calls it a "partial listing"):

What follows is a partial listing of diseases that have been successfully treated:

In the Psychiatric/Psychological arena:

Depression, Impulsive Rage Disturbances, Irritability, Emotional Lability, Psychosis, Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder and its variants, Memory Loss, Tourette's Syndrome, Transient Global Amnesia

In the Neurological/Physical arena:

Stroke, Grand Mal Epilepsy, Absence or Petit Mal Epilepsy, Psychomotor Epilepsy, Headache, Closed Head Injury, Post Concussion Syndrome, Vertigo, Ataxia, Tinnitis, Aphasia, Apraxias, Visual Loss, Visual Blurring, Blindness, Stuttering, Vasospasm after Sub-Arachnoid Hemmorhage, Vasospasm after Intracranial surgery not associated with trauma or Sub-Arachnoid Hemmorhage, disturbances of Word substitution and Word Finding, Dyslexia, Photophobia, Hyperaccusis, Tremor, Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis-Like Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, Vertebrobasilar Insufficiency, Vertigo, Cerebral Palsey, Vertebrogenic Syndrome, Syncope, Multi-Infarct Dementia, "Alzheimer's" Syndrome, Whiplash Induced Headaches, Headaches in general, TMJ Headaches⁶ Steroid Induced Migraines, Steroid Induced Psychosis, Fibromyalgia, Prinz-Metal Angina, Neuro-cognitive changes associated with electrical and lightning injuries.

That's quite a list! And yet he can't get published in a medical journal that isn't connected with his own office.

When you see a list like that, coming from one MD and with no published research to back it up other than in his own so-called "journal," I offer a clue: don't believe it.

Here's a piece from the Saint Petersburg Times about Hammesfahr's controversial treatment. Note the abundance of anecdote and lack of scientific testing of his therapy.

The piece concludes:

Hammesfahr says he hasn't done the rigorous clinical studies because he's too busy treating patients and because he feels it would be unethical to withhold the treatment from some patients in order to study them.

But Novella said that is not a good enough reason.

"That is the absolute standard response of all snake oil salesmen - 'I'm too busy curing my patients to study my treatment,' " Novella said. "If his treatment does work, then it's still unethical because he's depriving all of the hundreds of thousands of patients that would benefit from it if we knew that it worked."

Nowadays, of course, rather than taking the time to test his therapies he's out grabbing facetime on cable news channels. It's possible that enhancing his name recognition could enhance his revenue, while actually scientifically testing his therapies could do who knows what.

----
UPDATE: I've summarized this post and added more information in the next post.

Bizarre

A former prosecutor (appointed by John Ashcroft), apparently gets heavily into drugs in his late forties and is murdered over three weeks of unpaid rent (paying rent by the week is a bad sign in itself).

Sad story all around.

Rush Limbaugh, there but for the grace of great wealth go you.

And Ashcroft, I guess that annointing didn't take.

Bunkum, Bunk, Hokum, and Debunk

During the heated debate concerning the Missouri Compromise in 1820, Representative Felix Walker from the North Carolina County of Buncombe gave a disjointed and largely irrelevant speech. His colleagues begged him to yield but he refused, saying his speech wasn't for congress but for those in his home county.

Thus Buncombe (county seat Asheville) lends its name to bunkum, meaning claptrap, hot air, or empty asinine talk. Bunkum (combined with hocus-pocus to make hokum) is sometimes shortened to bunk, and in 1923 the word debunk entered the language based on the above.

Thank you, Felix Walker, for wasting time and giving us several nice words derived from a place name.

Scientists Named Steve

This post: features the quote:

The Discovery Institute, which is ground zero for the intelligent design movement, gathered at last count the signatures of 356 scientists who question evolution.

In response, the National Center for Science Education, which strongly defends the science of evolution, got 543 scientists named Steve to sign a defense of the theory.

Hilarious. And true. Here's the Project Steve home page at the NCSE site; it's named in honor of Stephen Jay Gould. They even have t-shirts for sale.

They're still accepting signatories named Steve (or Stephen, Steven, Esteban, Stienne, or Stephanie). Currently they're at 551 signatories. Surely there are more Scientist Steves than that. C'mon Steve!

Administration Rejects Ruling On PR Videos

We're from the government --no need to mention that -- and we're here to lie to you

The Bush administration, rejecting an opinion from the Government Accountability Office, said last week that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government's role in producing them.

Gee, why would they want to create news packages that are from the administration but do not disclose that fact?

Bush says he wants to bypass "the filter," but this makes it obvious he wants to be the filter -- and filter out impotant information in favor of flackery.

A Good Rule of Thumb

Don't Carry the Union Jack at a St. Patrick's Day Parade

Five Times

Smell of the Greasepaint in the Social Security lyiing tour:

"The night before the event, the chosen participants gathered for a rehearsal in the hall in which the president would appear the next day. An official dispatched by the White House played the president and asked questions. 'We ran through it five times before the president got there,' Darr said.

It Ain't Pretty

Financial Times story on Warrent Buffett's annual letter to investors:

"Mr Buffett stepped up his warning about the US trade deficit and the need to finance it with foreign investment, devoting more than two full pages of the annual report to the topic.

“This force-feeding of American wealth to the rest of the world is now proceeding at the rate of $1.8bn daily, an increase of 20 per cent since I wrote you last year,” he said. “Consequently, other countries and their citizens now own a net of about $3,000bn of the US”

In particular, he warned that this meant a sizeable portion of what US citizens earned in future would have to be paid to foreign landlords.

“A country that is now aspiring to an “Ownership Society” will not find happiness in – and I’ll use hyperbole here for emphasis – a “Sharecropper’s Society,” added Mr Buffett. “But that’s precisely where our trade policies, supported by Republicans and Democrats alike, are taking us.”"

The full letter to investors is linked from that story. Not a pretty picture.

My favorite Buffett opinion about Bush Administration economic policy: ""If it's class warfare, my class is winning."

Abbott & Costello at Blockbuster

At McSweeney's, Chris Gavaler's riff on Who's on First?

Nice.

Reminds me of a similar bit -- based on the names of rock bands -- done by The Credibility Gap (Richard Beebe, Harry Shearer, David L. Lander, and Michael McKean) in the seventies. Go to this page on Shearer's site and scroll down to the "Who's on First" link for the Real Audio file.

And I see that a site called whos-on-first.com has audio, video (!) and text of the original Bud Abbott and Lou Costello routine.

Drastic Horrors

Bush today:

"March 4 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, facing a decline in public support for private Social Security accounts, said ``something drastic has to happen'' to fix the retirement safety net that has served workers for decades."

Drastic, huh? For him, the most drastic possible thing would be increasing revenue (taxes) so the US can restore fiscal sanity.

But is fiscal sanity drastic enough for Bush? Don't bet on it.

The profligacy of this administration is infuriating.

The Battle Is Joined

In the past couple weeks, there have been notable sighs of relief from Democrats about the Social Security debate. Frist said "maybe next year," polls showed Bush's support dropping, and the whole idea of private accounts seemed to be getting no traction.

But the past is prelude -- the battle is about to be joined. And there's no telling what verbal and mathematical trickery, fake "grassroots" (i.e. astroturf) organizations, more-or-less celebrity [cough] spokespeople, parliamentary maneuvering, kissing of Democrats while hiding the shiv, and hyping of unrelated events will be brought to bear to dessicate one of the most successful programs in the history of the United States.

Josh Marshall, who deserves a medal and an enormous cash prize for his dilligent work on Social Security for months now, realizes the stakes. I urge you to read Josh's post.

The ideological fixations of the Republican Party throughout the 20th Century are now focused on the retirement income of millions of Americans in the decades to come. They are using both the shaky claim that we can't afford to support the elderly as we've done in the past combined with a promise that their plan will do better, when they know they cannot ensure that promise can be supported by the market.

In short, they're making an unsupportable promise about the future and reneging on a long-standing promise made every decade since FDR.

And, of course, they're pushing risk onto middle- and lower-income individuals and increasing the benefits for the most wealthy in the nation.

This is going to be a long and tiring fight. But it's one we can and must win. While Democrats argue about many things, I can't think of a true Democrat who would want the repeal of the social contract developed in the New Deal.

So, in this instance if no other, let's all pull in the same direction. Social Security must stand basically as it is now.

Bush should fix the horrible problems he has caused himself (like the general fund crisis ) and not create new problems for individual Americans in the future, as he is attempting to do.

It's a vitally important fight, and it's just beginning.

Damned Food

Recipes Of The Damned

Amy Stephenson has collected "real scary recipes from real scary vintage cookbooks," including a discursive little essay along with each. Some are intended to use a specific modern manufacturer's products, such as the majestic and elaborate HyPower Chile Con Carne with Noodles, and some are venerable dishes like Jugged Hare.

From the intro to the latter, I was surprised to learn that there was apparently a small regional chain in the US that served fried rabbit. It seems it didn't last long -- at least not the franchise near the Purdue campus.

I've seen sites that focus mainly on photos from old cookbooks or food packaging, but being a cooking buff, I find Recipes of the Damned more satisfying. I may even try some of them.

Science Political

This little blog-ditty titled Intellectual Diversity at Stanford has been well-linked, and it's quite clever. Here's the opening, but click through since it's funny and not long:

A shocking recent study has discovered that only 13% of Stanford professors are Republicans. The authors compare this to the 51% of 2004 voters who selected a Republican for President and argue this is “evidence of discrimination” and that “academic Republicans are being eradicated by academic Democrats”.

Scary as this is, my preliminary research has discovered some even more shocking facts. I have found that only 1% of Stanford professors believe in telepathy (defined as “communication between minds without using the traditional five senses”), compared with 36% of the general population. And less than half a percent believe “people on this earth are sometimes possessed by the devil”, compared with 49% of those outside the ivory tower. And while 25% of Americans believe in astrology (“the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives”), I could only find one Stanford professor who would agree. (All numbers are from mainstream polls, as reported by Sokal.)

That funny post resonated with this one I saw at Unfogged. While discussing his observations about the differences between humanities and social science people versus hard science people, Bob tosses this off:

When right-wing blowhards get all bunched up over the radicals on the tenure track, generally they're not referring to chemistry departments. Yes, every natural-scientist I know is hard-left as far as electoral politics go.

While I don't consort with academics that much anymore, I've found that true. Mathematicians, physicists, chemists are generally quite left, while those in the life sciences (biology, zoology, botany) are reliably progressive, too. [Computer science, which is arguably not a hard science, seems to have a bit higher ratio of conservatives.]

Even most scientists who have punctured some categories of leftists are generally very progressive. Physicist Alan Sokal (parenthetically mentioned in the first link above) who gave such a kick to the "academic left" with his hilarious Sokal Affair, is himself a leftist. Biologist Paul Gross and Mathematician Norman Levitt, the authors of Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels With Science, reveal in the book that they are pretty hardcore lefties, too.

These leftwing scientists and others are doing a great service to the left by trying to drive sloppy thinking, outright falsehoods, and superstitious tendencies from some doctrinaire leftists. I'm sure they gave some aid and comfort to conservatives who use their works to make fun of the "pomo" academic lefties, but sometimes the truth hurts.

Lefties criticizing lefties. That's something I've been noticing recently. Maybe I'll post about it sometime.

Not one "My Cheerleader Uniform Won't Fit"

I rarely read Molly Ivin's columns, but this one from Sunday really packs a punch.

There's a bill in the Texas legislature to change parental notification of minor abortion to parental consent. Molly spends most of her column reprinting solicitations to judges to bypass, as provided by law, the current notification rule. Here's just one:

Social worker for a 13-year-old: "She ran away from her foster home and was gone for eight weeks. Now she's in an emergency shelter and is pregnant. Her mother is deceased. Her father raped her when she was 8 years old and is still in prison for it. I knew her when she had to testify against him. I don't know if I can convince her to go back to court, but she definitely wants an abortion."

They're all heartbreaking.

Thanks to Mousewords for the liink.

Coincidence, Maybe

AP writes a strange-sounding breaking story: Federal Judge Finds Two Bodies in Home:

CHICAGO - A federal judge discovered two bodies in her home Monday night, and authorities were investigating the deaths.

U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow found the bodies about 6 p.m., when she returned home from work, police spokesman Pat Camden said.

The judge was uninjured.

Authorities did not identify the bodies and did not disclose the cause of death.

That Judge's name sure sounds familiar.

Ah, remember the racist Matt Hale, and his racist World Church of the Creator? He's had some dealings with this judge:

Hale went so far as to solicit the murder of Judge Lefkow and attempt to influence her by force. He was arrested by federal agents in January 2003 and was convicted on the charges last spring. United States v. Hale....

I'm sure the authorities already know this.

[Update: How horrible: the dead were her husband and mother, apparently killed execution-style. And, predictably, the white supremacy angle is part of the investigation. See here .]

Reporting Redux

I hadn't previously seen this week-old Michael Kinsley Op-Ed in the Washington Post, but he succinctly puts his finger on what bothers me about the stance of Judith Miller and Matt Cooper regarding the Plame leak case:

"The leak wasn't merely connected to the crime. The leak was the crime. 'Outing' an intelligence agent is illegal."

Exactly. It's as if a reporter protested that she couldn't testify about a robbery she witnessed because the perpetrator had told her that he was robbing on deep background.

Of course, this fiasco also helps Miller get the "Ms. First Amendment" tee shirt rather than being continuallly pilloried for her heinous pre-war "reporting." That's a real travesty of justice.

Reporting

Laurie Garrett, the Pulitzer-prize winning writer for Newsday, has decided not to return to the paper after her leave of absence working at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Poynter Online posts here her goodbye essay/letter. And it's not only readers who are disgusted with journalism nowadays:

When I started out in journalism the newsrooms were still full of old guys with blue collar backgrounds who got genuinely indignant when the Governor lied or somebody turned off the heat on a poor person's apartment in mid-January. They cussed and yelled their ways through the day, took an occasional sly snort from a bottle in the bottom drawer of their desk and bit into news stories like packs of wild dogs, never letting go until they'd found and told the truth. If they hadn't been reporters most of those guys would have been cops or firefighters. It was just that way.

Now the blue collar has been fully replaced by white ones in America's newsrooms, everybody has college degrees. The "His Girl Friday" romance of the newshound is gone. All too many journalists seem to mistake scandal mongering for tenacious investigation, and far too many aspire to make themselves the story. When I think back to the old fellows who were retiring when I first arrived at Newsday – guys (almost all of them were guys) who had cop brothers and fathers working union jobs – I suspect most of them would be disgusted by what passes today for journalism. Theirs was not a perfect world --- too white, too male, seen through a haze of cigarette smoke and Scotch – but it was an honest one rooted in mid-20th Century American working class values.

One of my kvetches with blogger triumphalism is the oft-noted fact that bloggers mainly link (at least eventually along the bloglink chain) to "mainstream media" stories. If it weren't for reporters actually doing journalism, the blogosphere would be more of a ciricle-jerk than it already is. (I include this blog as a little part of that circle-jerk, btw.)

I'm sure there was no golden age of journalism, or that whiskey had much to do with quality, but news really seems mostly pathetic nowadays. And don't get me started on local TV news.

I think Laurie Garrett was the only reporter (not columnist) at Newsday that I knew by name. Sorry to see her go.

Movies

This paragraph, and some of the discussion in this Jonathan Yardley story, makes me want to read the book:

"'The massive moviegoing audience that had nurtured the [old] studio system simply no longer exists,' Epstein writes. 'In contrast to the 4.7 billion movie tickets sold in America in 1947, there were only 1.57 billion tickets sold in 2003. So, even though the population had almost doubled, movie theaters sold 3.1 billion fewer tickets than they had in 1947.'"

From The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood, By Edward Jay Epstein

How can an industry that's changed so radically still survive? Evidently, it's become an Intellectual Property generator, which then divvies up the money it makes -- less and less raked in at the box office and more and more coming in from ancillary products. Read the story (or the book) for more facts. I guess movies will survive even this, but it's not surprising there's so much drek in theaters -- it's surprising there are any good movies at all.

And I did see some good 2004 movies, hough I haven't seen all the Oscar nominees. Here are my favorites from those saw last year.

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I knew Charlie Kauffman was a great writer before; this movie made me think he's brilliant. Don't go expecting a comedy -- it has Jim Carrey (who was fine in the role) and some funny concepts and bits, but actually it's dark and pretty disturbing look at relationships. It's a romantic comedy only if your genre-sorting machine is out of whack.
  
• Sideways. Conversely, a dark comedy with emphasis on the comedy. Well written, acted, and directed.
  
• The Incredibles. Pixar is making such damned smart animated movies. It's hard to resist this clever movie that's deeper in themes than a lot of live action features.
  
• Shaun of the Dead. Hilarious zombie comedy from the makers of the even more brilliant TV show Spaced.
  

Also rans: Napoleon Dynamite (sweet idiotic comedy); Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle (funny stoner comedy), Spiderman 2 (Raimi made it very good for what is it); Kill Bill Vol 2 (impressively stylish); Anchorman (stupid but funny); Collateral (better than expected).

A few I either want to or "should" see: Million Dollar Baby; Hotel Rwanda; Ray; Vera Drake; Der Untergang (US Title: Downfall -- Bruno Ganz is sure a helluvan actor); Bad Education; and probably a few more.

Two remakes that I thought could possibly have been good but which went wide of the mark: The Stepford Wives (a train wreck of mismatched tone and Rudnick's joke-generator) and Manchurian Candidate (too earnest and not as savvy as it thought it was).

I close by repeating one of the most often repeated phrases of the past few weeks: Paul Giamatti was robbed.

FCC Fines In Context

Station Manager Ken at the invaluable WFMU blog gives us a little rundown of governmental fines. Guess what: "cultural pollution" fines are orders of magnitude greater than actual pollution with, say, actual radioactive waste that could actually kill actual people.

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: Cussing More Expensive Than Radioactive Waste.

Special bonus -- the post includes an MP3 download link to the Monty Python song "Sit on my face and tell me that you love me," which has no dirty words in it and still garnered a $25K fine from the old (pre-Janet Jackson's booby) FCC.

Not TV Blogging

Matthew Yglesias has been a persistent and thoughtful booster for the HBO series The Wire. I went out and bought Season One of the show based mainly on his raves. I've since seen every episode and can testify that Matt is right. The Wire is television of a rare and high order: a portrait of many layers of city life told largely through the reflexes of a police procedural.

It's powerful story-telling at the service of a rich story. An incredible series.

Before I was converted into a "The Wire"-phile, I had already succumed to the rarified pleasures of HBO's Deadwood. It's both more abstract and more earthy than The Wire, and I could be convinced it's the best western ever captured, and one of the best things ever to hit what is now paranoically called my "monitor."

The New Yorker recently featured a profile of the creator of Deadwood, David Milch. It's fascinating and only heightens my interest in the series. Milch is a complicated guy.

It's well worth the read. Too many interesting things to even excerpt, but I'll rip this Milch quote out to entice you:

"You know, people say that my writing is dark. And for me it's quite the opposite. It sees light in darkness and it doesn't try to distort darkness. The essential thing is that the seeing itself is joyful."

Deadwood is a real place, and many of the characters and places in the series were really there in 1876-1877 .

As for the swearing, Milch says it's necessary. I agree, though I tend to believe Geoffrey Nunberg when he says it's not quite the way they would have sworn back in the day. But if people on TV today were swearing as they actually were in the 1870s, we'd all be baffled or under-profaned. So the swearing has the impact of the past swearing without the actual words they used back then.

Still, don't get so sucked up totally by Deadwood fever that you ignore The Wire. It's a masterful series. Don't burn The Wire!

Of course, regular readers will know of my fondness for British comedy, so I will point you to BBC Radio and particularly to the "Knowing Me, Knowing You" radio series from 1992 featuring the incomparable Alan Partridge. His shallowness will make you feel oh so deep.

Coalition math

Adding to the saga of poor Toomas [below], now Ukraine is pulling troops out

Ukraine to pull out all its troops: "Ukraine said it would pull out its 1,650 troops from the war-torn country."

I saw that Estonia and France will send one soldier each, and Australia will send a few hundred more.

Still, things look bad for poor Toomas.

Pity the Poor Estonian Dude

Estonia wasn't going to send anyone, but then Toomas really ticked off the brass.
Sooooo.....

In a show of unity after bitter disputes, all 26 countries in NATO pledged money, equipment or personnel to train Iraqi security forces, though many of the pledges were modest.

Estonia said it would send one staff officer to Iraq, and $65,000.

$65,000, huh? By odd coincidence, Toomas lost $65,000 in savings in the past week, too.

Bad times for Toomas.

For no good reason other than the military tie-in, this reminds me of that great movie The Last Detail.

Quaint Old Concepts

Quite a few quaint old concepts seem to have lost their import, including family value [sic] and war profiteering

President Bush's uncle made more than $450,000 last month by selling stock in a defense contractor whose profits are growing because of the Iraq war, records show.

Papering the House

Der Spiegel reports:

During his trip to Germany on Wednesday, the main highlight of George W. Bush's trip was meant to be a "town hall"-style meeting with average Germans. But with the German government unwilling to permit a scripted event with questions approved in advance, the White House has quietly put the event on ice.

Germany outstrips America in spontaneity. The world is turned upside down.

We're constantly hearing how bouyant and confident Bush is after his re-election. So confident that he'll only take pre-screened questions? That's not very confident at all.

Free the Iranian Bloggers

I'm not much for blogger triuphalism, but I have an even lower regard for imprisoning bloggers, as Iran has done in the cases of Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad

Some folks have deemed today Free Mojtaba and Arash day and I can get behind that.