Why it's dangerous to walk in the USA. Almost 5,000 people per year die in the US simply because they are pedestrians. And yet there's no $38 billion Cabinet-level Department of Sidewalk Security. Makes you wonder which side Bush and Lott and the rest of them are on.

{ 12:35 PM }

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Stop taking antibiotics, honey.

{ 12:31 PM }

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He's back. James Capozzola (hmm, I never noticed those initials before) returns from his break at The Rittenhouse Review.

Here's your bundt cake, James. No MSG, BHT or LGF. Courtesy of iVillage where you can also find the recipe.

{ 9:01 AM }

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Montreal's Expo67 was "a spectacular success, many say it was the last great World's Fair," according to Portage, where I found this fascinating site. As a wee child who attended the fair, I remember many of these odd pavilions demonstrating how cool architecture could be in a Jetsons-style future, and how tres cool Canada is.

National Archives of Canada provides lots of great materials including movies, documents, and photographs of the major pavilions including Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome pavilion for the USA.

{ 8:44 AM }

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Drug dealers meet and conspire to make Congress their bitches according to this report.

{ 2:22 PM }

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As you know, the new general secretary of China's Communist Party is Hu Jintao, prompting the following exchange (by James Sherman, via .foXinternet):

HU'S ON FIRST
(We take you now to the Oval Office.)
George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice, here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?

{ 10:30 AM }

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Supergenius J. Craig Venter plans to create new forms of Republican voters in a dish in his ultra-top secret laboratory. Recently returning from his guest appearance as the insane genetic engineer on South Park (the favorite TV show of "South Park Republicans"), Venter's newest venture was reported by the Washington Post:

The project raises philosophical, ethical and practical questions. For instance, if a man-made organism proved able to survive and reproduce only under a narrow range of laboratory conditions, could it really be considered life? More broadly, do scientists have any moral right to create new organisms*?

...Scientists don't usually announce their experiments in advance, but Venter said he felt this one needed to be brought to the attention of policymakers** in Washington, since it could create a new set of tools that terrorists or hostile states might exploit to make biological weapons. "We'll have a debate on what should be published and what shouldn't," Venter said. "We may not disclose all the details that would teach somebody else how to do this."

Decoding the genome gives fresh meaning to "political science." Like most research, this research sounds incredibly important and valuable – to the researchers. The rest of us: fucked.

*That vote GOP and work for subminimum wage.
**Nonbipartisan.

{ 9:32 AM }

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Hey George – it's in the Bible, it must be true!

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Spliceth not the seed of the goat with the seed of the spider, for the milk of the land shall remain unengineered by men with coats of white and pots of gold who ruleth the heavens and the earth.
          Leviticus 28 : 7-8

So genetic manipulation is forbidden by the Lord your God after all. Take that, Tommy Thompson!

{ 3:41 PM }

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Statistical arguments against invading Iraq.

The United States imports six millions barrels of oil a day from the Middle East. If stacked one on top of another, it would make a stack six million barrels high…

Over two billion rounds of ammunition were fired during the original Gulf War in 1991, at an average cost of $ .75 per bullet. Imagine all of the wealth of Microsoft founder Bill Gates; and yet if Mr. Gates were to be shot once per second, it would take over 62 years to shoot him two billion times. That is, if the New World Order didn't seize your gun first.

(From the hilarious Lies Behind the Upcoming Iraqi War, found on some MetaFilter comments page or another.)

{ 3:40 PM }

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"The real problem with engineered crops...

… is that they permit the big biotech companies to place a padlock on the food chain. By patenting the genes and all the technologies associated with them, the corporations are manoeuvring themselves into a position from which they can exercise complete control over what we eat. This has devastating implications for food security in poorer countries…

"One of USAID's stated objectives is to "integrate GM into local food systems". Earlier this year, it launched a $100m programme for bringing biotechnology to developing countries. USAID's "training" and "awareness raising" programmes will, its website reveals, provide companies such as "Syngenta, Pioneer Hi-Bred and Monsanto" with opportunities for "technology transfer" into the poor world. Monsanto, in turn, provides financial support for USAID. The famine will permit USAID to accelerate this strategy.

"While working with USAID to open new territory, they also appear to have been fighting covert campaigns against their critics."

George Monbiot's "The covert biotech war" in The Guardian. The article details the use of invented, fictional people such as "Andura Smetacek" who use the Internet to accuse critics of GM of "terrorism," the new description of any activity that CEOs and Republicans don't like.

{ 12:54 PM }

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE from the ACLU:

Ruling for the first time in its history, the ultra-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review today gave the green light to a Justice Department bid to broadly expand its powers to spy on U.S. citizens. 

"We are deeply disappointed with the decision, which suggests that this special court exists only to rubberstamp government applications for intrusive surveillance warrants," said Ann Beeson, litigation director of the Technology and Liberty Program of the American Civil Liberties Union. 

(...)

Today’s decision comes on the heels of a White House announcement of a new system being developed at the Pentagon that would be able to track every American’s activities. The so-called "Total Information Awareness" program will create -- according to Pentagon officials -- the infrastructure for the most extensive electronic surveillance system in history. Conservative New York Times columnist William Safire has dubbed the program "a supersnoop’s dream."

Emphasis added, but never enough.

{ 10:14 AM }

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Could this political environment be any stranger than it is? Yesterday I noted that pharmaceutical giant Lilly is being granted legislative perks it didn't even ask for. It turns out that last Friday a Lilly heiress gave $100 million (New York Times) to Poetry Magazine.

"Its a real mind-blower," said the United States' poet laureate, Billy Collins, who was at the dinner. "Poetry has always had the reputation as being the poor little match girl of the arts. Well, the poor little match girl just hit the lottery."

Those who ask for nothing but are favored by the whims of Republican plutocrats receive enormous fortunes, and those of us who ask for simple things (like honest election recounts, protected wilderness areas, parity with Canadian medical coverage, democracy, etc.) get nothing. Worse than nothing.

{ 10:04 AM }

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bad things provides this mindfuck from Science Magazine, for which I lazily couldn't figure out the site registration (emphasis added):

1) To avoid getting advice that is discordant with the administration's political agenda, the secretary [of HHS, Tommy Thompson] disbanded the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee and DHHS's Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing, both of which were attempting to craft solutions to the complex problems accompanying genetic testing and research; solutions that apparently conflicted with the religious views of certain political constituencies.

2) To ensure that the department would get no unwanted advice from its environmental health advisory committees, the secretary has stacked them with scientists long affiliated with polluting industries. Fifteen of the 18 members of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) have been replaced, many with scientists that have long been associated with the chemical or petroleum industries, often in leadership positions of organizations opposing public health and environmental regulation.

It will take generations to undo the pluto-theocratic damage that Junior's administration is wreaking upon us all.

{ 11:29 AM }

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Rittenhouse Readers: see update below this post.

WBEZ, the Chicago Public Radio station (link in the right column under "Chicago"), has possibly added a welcome new show to its programming lineup. Called Alternative Radio, it is exactly that, offering opinionated guests in the Chomsky/Palast/Said vein as a counterpoint to the faux-objektif right-wing chatter that passes for American journalism in venues like CNN or even the Washington Post.

Last night's show featured imperialism-journalism critic John Pilger who has written a book entitled The New Rulers of the World. His insights are fascinating, particularly his critique of the internalized distinction Americans journalists unconsciously draw between "people who matter" and "people who do not matter." (E.g., the 3,000 September 11 US dead versus the non-Al-Qaeda Afghan civilians, probably more in number, who died in retaliation.)

I can't even remember what show this replaced, but I'm sure glad. It appears promising.

UPDATE: The post below, originally posted on 11/22/02 for James of The Rittenhouse Review, won't archive correctly so I'm posting here too.

He's back. James Capozzola (hmm, I never noticed those initials before) returns from his break at The Rittenhouse Review.

Here's your bundt cake, James. No MSG, BHT or LGF. Courtesy of iVillage where you can also find the recipe.

{ 10:59 AM }

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Pork: More fat for the Right, less meat for America. The Fatherland Security bill has been disfigured by a series of GOP surgeries intended to reward party functionaries, according to the Washington Post:

Lawyers for parents of autistic children suing pharmaceutical companies over childhood vaccines charged yesterday that a new section in the homeland bill -- passed on Wednesday by the House and now before the Senate -- would keep the lawsuits out of state courts, ruling out huge judgments and lengthy litigation.
(...)
GOP officials said the provisions are merely aimed at protecting companies working on life-saving products from being dragged into costly litigation by trial lawyers. Pharmaceutical companies were among the largest contributors to Republicans in this year's elections, while trial lawyers heavily backed Democrats.

Tom DeLay gets his piece of the pie:

GOP aides said the language originally offered by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), and now incorporated in the bill, gives Texas A&M the inside track in hosting the first university center on homeland security, to be established within one year. DeLay was elected Wednesday to serve as the House majority leader in the 108th Congress.

Republicans are now engaged in preemptive sucking-up:

Company spokesman Edward Sagebiel said Lilly was "surprised when the language was inserted" because it had not actively lobbied for it in recent months.

The previous president was impeached for being fellated and lying about it – can't we impeach this one for fellating and lying about it?

{ 9:57 AM }

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