22. april 2003

Why in heaven's name bribe Galloway? The accusation that the rabid leftist MP George Galloway was bribed by Saddam Hussein leaves the obvious question: why should he bother to bribe Galloway to do what he would normally do for free? Also, trying to buy influence in the UK through a marginalised extreme-leftist sounds about as stupid as wanting to defile American cuisine or corrupting British railroads.... Now wait a minute. The Gaurdian thinks this is all a plot by our friend Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf the Iraqi Information Minister, who is always very much in touch with reality. Read the whole wish list for how victory can be assured! 8:58:06 PM    comment []

France wants end to Iraq sanctions Signalling that France is taking steps to improve the relationship to the US, France said today that it will bring the UN sanctions against Iraq to an end quickly, and also phase out the oil-for-food programme. Earlier, there were indications that France and Russia wanted to use the issue as a bargaining chip to get more UN control in Iraq. Now it seems France has thrown those cards to improve the relationship with the US. 8:02:43 PM    comment []

SARS virus mutating Health experts are warning that the virus that causes SARS can rapidly mutate, so any effective vaccinations or treatments that are found may not work for long. In addition, mutated strains may be able to live more effectively in humans, and spread more easily. Wonder how many of those who catch SARS are creationists, and whether they see the irony of being victimised by what they deny? 7:27:19 PM    comment []

Republican leader compares homosexuality to bigamy and incest Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R, of course) clearly supports the Texas sodomy law currently in the Supreme Court, and made the following remark in an AP interview: If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Gay rights groups are naturally fuming over the absurd comparisons, and the statement is being compared to Trent Lott's earlier remarks about segregation, that ended with him having to resign as majority leader. 4:40:14 PM    comment []

Citizens outlaw the law A number of municipals in the United States have seen the forming of citizen's right groups set up to battle the Patriot Act, and its even more draconian Patriot II before it is even put on the table. The small Californian city Arcata has become the first to outright ban the law: its citizens are not allowed to comply with the Patriot Act. 3:21:21 PM    comment []

— Labour MP took bribes from Saddam George Galloway, backbencher in Tony Blair's Labour party, is being accused of having received at least £375,000 a year from Saddam Hussein's regime. The Daily Telegraph claims to have found intelligence documents to that effect in Baghdad. Galloway has been a outspoken critic of the sanctions against Iraq, and to nobody's surprise, a very rabid critic of the war. In fact, he even encouraged British soldiers to refuse to fight in the war, which had him accused of treason. His future in Labour was dubious even before this new accusation. He denies the charges of receiving bribes from Saddam vehemently, calls the documents 'forgeries' and threatens to sue the Telegraph. My take: Galloway is toast. He's lucky if he is not put away for treason. 3:03:42 PM    comment []

How many you? Perhaps there is an almost exact you somewhere, which just happened to not read this, but some other blog. Far from the multiverse being just the stuff of science fiction, both cosmology and quantum mechanics seem to point to the multiple universe theories being very consistent with everything we know. A recent Scientific American article looks at multiverses at four different levels. In one of the many universes, there might be one you who reads through the whole article, and finds it utterly fascinating as I did. 2:12:02 PM    comment []

In Texas, breastfeeding photo is child porn When Johnny Fernandez photographed his girlfriend Jacqueline Mercado (picture) and their children naked in the bathtub, he had no idea how much problems he would bring down over their heads. The couple had recently emigrated from Peru, living in a modest suburbian home in Richardson near Dallas. They snapped a number of pictures of their children, one showing a one year old infant sucking his mother's breast. When the photographs were developed, a technician considered the photographs "suspicious" and reported it to the police, as demanded by law. The full force of the law came crashing down on the couple. The prosecutor convinced a grand jury to have the couple indicted for child pornography, and the state child welfare took the children into foster care. Their most pressing problem was the breast-feeding picture, which the indictment characterized as sexual, "to wit; actual lewd exhibition of...a portion of the female breast below the top of the areola, and the said defendant did and then employ, authorize and induce Rodrigo Fernandez, a child younger than 18 years of age, to engage in said sexual conduct and sexual performance." In other words, says Chatham, the act of simulated breast-feeding, captured on film, was being portrayed as a sex act. "They're saying the guy who took the picture is a sicko and wanted a photo of this to satisfy his sexual desire." When the press heard about the case and asked District Attorney Bill Hill about it, he took steps to have the case dropped. But while no charges have been pressed, the children are still not back with their mother, even though a lawyer appointed to represent the children have recommended they be returned. You can find a discussion of the case, and contact information, on Kyro5hin. 11:28:54 AM    comment []

Coke makes sweet threats against WHO At the end of her tenure, highly successful director general of the World Health Organisation Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland (picture) faces a serious challenge from the powerful US sugar industry. WHO has issued guidelines for healthy eating, which includes the recommendation to limit daily intake of sugar to account for no more than 10 %. In a letter to the director general, the US Sugar Association directly threatens with lobbying the Congress to stop US funding of WHO, and it has also lobbied US health secretary Tommy Thompson to apply pressure to withdraw the guidelines. The Sugar Association includes 300 corporations, including powerful companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsico. The Sugar Association says the conclusion is dubious and badly founded scientifically, a claim strongly rebuked by the WHO. Thirty independent experts and 23 different national reports support the recommendation. The sugar industry on their hand relies on one recent report, from the Institute of Medicine, whose president Harvey Fineberg says the sugar industry misinterprets. However, the WHO realises that scientific findings may not weigh as heavy in the Bush administration as lobbying power. 10:26:56 AM    comment []

Very informal "If Iraq had a first name, Jay Garner would use it. " (London Times about the US General set to administer Iraq) 8:48:38 AM    comment []

DNA may prove death row inmate innocent Ryan Matthews, who was convicted of a 1997 killing and put on the Lousiana death row, may be proven innocent by a recent DNA test. I found it particularly scary to see the way the judge conducted the capital case against him: After all the evidence was submitted, at 10 p.m. on the third day of the murder trial in 1999, the judge ordered the closing arguments to be given, despite the late hour and then, despite objections, sent the jury out to deliberate at midnight, Mr. Sothern said. At 4:20 a.m., the jurors sent a note saying that they had not yet come to a verdict, but the judge ordered them to continue. At 5 a.m., they found Mr. Matthews guilty of murder. Such absurd practices are calling the whole court system into serious doubt. Was the judge stressing the jurors to be able to have the next day off, or what? 7:03:12 AM    comment []

— France helped Iraqis escape DebkaFile, a news source that is normally very up to date about the Middle East (if extremely pro-Israel in its views), says that France is conspiring to hide Iraqi scientists and military leaders. DEBKAfile’s exclusive intelligence and military sources reveal that, from Monday night, April 14, groups of Iraqi military and scientific leaders have been transferred from Syria to France. This came about as a result of President Chirac consenting to help Assad live up to his commitments to Saddam Hussein and keep their forbidden weapons out of sight and their existence denied. The motive? To prevent the discovery of WMDs in Iraq, which would be highly embarrassing to Chirac and boost coalition claims. 5:30:58 AM    comment []

Chernobyl nonsense A recent article on BBC News, which concerns the release of new documents about Chernobyl showing the nuclear power plant had a troubled life even before the accident in 1986, contains a number of rather absurd exaggarations: The explosion on 26 April on the fourth reactor released 100 times the amount of radiation of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together. Between 15,000 and 30,000 people have since died and the United Nations estimates that nearly six million people continue to live in contaminated areas. In actuality, the number of documented deaths from the Chernobyl accident was 48. In addition, there are projected victims from the radioactive fallout, which may cause cancers, but not even remotely in the order described above. This is the kind of absurd figures that has been repeated by the media since the accident occured, even though they are totally unsupported by all known facts. It seems the words "radiation" or "nuclear" make many journalists lose their heads completely. Check out How bad was Chernobyl? 3:07:56 AM    comment []

The original fasting girl I just heard an interesting programme on BBC Radio about Sarah Jacob, the 19th century Welsh "fasting girl" who became a celebrity in her days when she claimed to not have eaten or drunk anything for 16 months. When doctors set out to prove she lied and put a 24 hours watch on her, she died from starvation in a number of days. Today, she is recognised as one of the first known examples of the eating disorder Anorexia nervosa. It is interesting to note that Sarah had most of the same symptoms and psychological issues as modern day sufferers. Yet, she didn't have glossy magazines or films to look at to make her feel inadequate about her body, which is a frequent claim made by feminists today as to the causes of eating disorders (that is, blame some "industry"). 1:41:28 AM    comment []

Baghdad Shia Muslims demonstrate against US More than 4,000 Shias organised a protest against US "colonialism" in Baghdad today. Everybody understands that if the coalition pulled out now, Iraq would collapse into massive civil war. So, assuming the clerics who organised the protests are not complete dimwits, they know this and this is just part of the positioning for power for the future Iraq. The US wants to retain influence in Iraq even after it pulls out completely. If a future, even democratic, Iraq is hostile to the west, the whole process would have been a failure from the neocon's point of view. Another nation very eager to get influence in Iraq is its neighbour Iran. It no doubt hopes to exert this influence through its common Shia bonds. I find it very likely that the unrest among Shias in Iraq is controlled from Tehran. 1:27:34 AM    comment []

— Chemical weapons destroyed as war loomed An Iraqi scientist claims that the country kept chemical weapons up to the start of the war, and then rushed to have them destroyed. He is supposed to have pointed to places where supply material for chemical weapons were dumped. He has also stated that Iraq cooperated with Al Qaeda about chemical weapons. 12:08:47 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.05.2003; 02:59:29.