The War in Iraq – An Early Retrospective

The War in Iraq – An Early Retrospective

Two weeks into the war… By T. F. Kelley The Daily News Transcript Published on April 4, 2003 In 1981 Richard Helms, Director of the CIA for most of the Vietnam War admitted it was our ignorance of a “complex cultural and ethnic problem” that led to the massive misassessments and their horrific consequences.  We already know, only two weeks into this war, that the wrong questions were asked.  The Administration not only failed to ask the right questions but also seemed to be were unaware of the questions for which answers were needed. In selling the war in Iraq to the American people the Administration made several predictions based wholly on information-free assumptions.   These predictions/assumptions are being tested during the progress of the war and they are failing.  Among the predictions were: the war will be quick, we will be welcomed as liberators and the war will enhance our safety. These predictions came from the highest level of...

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The Long War: Year Ten

The Long War: Year Ten

by: Andrew Bacevich | TomDispatch | Op-Ed In January 1863, President Abraham Lincoln’s charge to a newly-appointed commanding general was simplicity itself: “give us victories.” President Barack Obama’s tacit charge to his generals amounts to this: give us conditions permitting a dignified withdrawal. A pithy quote in Bob Woodward’s new book captures the essence of an emerging Obama Doctrine: “hand it off and get out.” Getting into a war is generally a piece of cake. Getting out tends to be another matter altogether – especially when the commander-in-chief and his commanders in the field disagree on the advisability of doing so. Happy Anniversary, America. Nine years ago today – on October 7, 2001 – a series of U.S. air strikes against targets across Afghanistan launched the opening campaign of what has since become the nation’s longest war. Three thousand two hundred and eighty five days later the fight to determine Afghanistan’s future continues. At least in part, “Operation Enduring...

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Bad Puns – Part 1

Bad Puns – Part 1

Mahatma Ghandi walked barefoot everywhere, to the point that his feet became thick and hard. He also was a very spiritual person.  Even when he was not on a hunger strike, he did not eat much and became extremely thin and frail. Furthermore, due to his diet, he wound up with very bad breath.  Therefore, he came to be known as a super calloused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft it sank – proving once and for all that you can’t have your kayak and heat it, too. Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina.  One went to Hollywood and became a famous actor.  The other stayed behind in the cotton fields and never amounted to much. The second one, naturally, became known as the lesser of two weevils. A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West. He sidles...

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First Patient Treated With Embryonic Stem Cells

First Patient Treated With Embryonic Stem Cells

Paralyzed Atlanta Patient Gets Stem Cells Injected Into Spine By Daniel J. DeNoo Embryonic Stem Cells Mature Before Injection Before being given to patients, the embryonic cells are matured into “precursor cells” destined to become oligodendrocytes. These are the cells that make up the myelin sheaths that protect nerves in the spinal cord.  It’s hoped that the GRNOPC1 cells will restore spinal function by replacing lost myelin and by giving off chemical signals that promote new nerve growth. The cells are injected directly into the site of the spinal injury using a syringe positioning device that attaches to the frame of the operating room table.  Patients in the study must undergo short-term immune-suppressing therapy to ensure that their bodies do not reject the new cells.  The Atlanta patient, and nine more patients to be enrolled in the first phase of the clinical trial, get only small doses of the GRNOPC1 cells. It’s the human equivalent of the smallest dose...

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‘Grape’ is key to fossil puzzle

‘Grape’ is key to fossil puzzle

A single-celled ball about the size of a grape may provide an explanation for one of the mysteries of fossil history.  Writing in Current Biology, researchers say the creature leaves tracks on the seabed which mirror fossilised tracks left up to 1.8 billion years ago. Many palaeontologists believe only multi-celled organisms could have made these tracks. This has been difficult to confirm as no multi-cellular fossils of such an age have ever been found.Covered in mudThe discovery was made by marine biologists monitoring the sea bed in the Bahamas. They noticed a great deal of tracks made by grape-shaped creatures called protists. Dr Mikhail “Misha” Matz from the University of Texas at Austin, US, led the research.”We were looking for pretty animals that have eyes, are coloured, or glow in the dark; instead, the most interesting find was the organism that was blind, brainless, and completely covered in mud,” he said. The researchers say the 3cm-wide, single-celled protists propel...

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The possible war with Iraq – another perspective

The possible war with Iraq – another perspective

At the turn of the century (remember Y2K when all the computers would crash at midnight) I was still intellectually involved in our criminal justice system, particularly the prosecutorial misconduct in the trials of the Amirault family (three of the “convicted innocent”) when I read this news headline, “30 Million People Worldwide Protesting the War!”  What war?   It turned out to be Bush’s war-to-be in Iraq.  I needed to find out more about this Bush and his lust for war. Bush explained on a Sunday morning talk show (they are not called “think” shows) that for a president to be successful he must be a “War President” and he, Bush, was going to have a successful administration because he was going to be a “War President.”  One might ask why a war was needed.  It was clear (to everyone but the neocons) that al Qaida threat was limited and that Saddam had been and could be managed.  Bush inherited...

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The Decline of Cursing

The Decline of Cursing

The old bad words have lost much of their meaning. It seems to me that bad language is not what it was, at least in English. The blasphemous oaths of old have lost their potency, and except in comic books one seldom sees those explosively suggestive rows of asterisks, exclamation marks and such that used to stand for bowdlerizing. Blasphemy, of course, means little nowadays. A religious reference used to give a curse or an oath extra authenticity, but today most of us don’t for a moment hesitate to take the name of God in vain, and anyway most of the sacred content was long ago elided into the language. How many of us, when we use the grand old expletive “bloody,” recall that we are invoking (“by our Lady”) the mother of Christ? Not a stage Cockney in a million, brought up on “My Fair Lady,” knows when he utters the compulsory “Gorblimey” that he is really challenging...

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50 state attorneys general announce foreclosure probe

50 state attorneys general announce foreclosure probe

The attorneys general of all 50 U.S. states announced Wednesday that they are joining to probe mortgage loan servicers who are accused of submitting false affidavits, but they stopped short of calling for a national moratorium. The multistate investigation will initially focus on whether Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial and other large mortgage companies made misleading or fraudulent statements to evict struggling borrowers from their homes. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoellersaid investigators initially will focus on whether industry employees – so-called “robo-signers” – signed off on thousands of foreclosures every month without reviewing the files as legally required. Homeowner attorneys also allege that lenders forged signatures and improperly notarized documents. Such actions might have violated laws against unfair and deceptive trade practices, which could result in civil penalties. Typically the laws have been used to protect consumers from false advertising, but state officials say they could also be applied to foreclosure. Law enforcement officials said they...

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North polesunsetwithmoon

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