Well…

A balanced political cartoon.

Next thing you know, we’ll have all kinds of strangeness… Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

Nick Anderson (at MyComicsPage.com, a subscription service, but inexpensive and worth it!):

Hopefully, with both extremes frothing at the mouth, perhaps the sensible middle can take the reigns.

At least, that is my forlorn hope…

Technorati Tags: commentary

When I started my job with my current company, back in 1996, I met a man who is now one of my best friends. He had fought in the 1991 Gulf War, and for a time, we (his friends and I) were concerned in late 1996 through around 1999 that he was going to drink himself to death.

According to one of the women I was dating at the time, a psychiatrist, my friend showed all the symptoms of PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

So, despite his definite left-leaning viewpoint, do not dismiss Gary Trudeau and what he has been trying to illustrate from our latest foray into Iraq out of hand.

It is important that we remember THIS COST, not only in life and limb, but in peace of mind as well.

We must be very careful when we ask for these kinds of sacrifices, and we must be fullly aware of what the sacrifices are if we are to ask for them again.

Technorati Tags: commentary

From MSNBC.com:

Monkeypox shows longevity of smallpox shots
Vaccinated people exposed to prairie dog virus didn’t have symptoms

Reuters
Updated: 12:03 p.m. ET Aug. 8, 2005

WASHINGTON - A 2003 outbreak of monkeypox in the United States has helped prove that smallpox vaccinations can protect for decades, U.S. researchers said Monday.

The study could help officials trying to come up with a plan for mass vaccination against the often deadly smallpox virus and its relatives, should such a virus ever be used in a biological attack.

The researchers found three people who were evidently infected by the monkeypox virus, spread mostly by pet prairie dogs in the Midwest, who never had any symptoms.

The three had last been vaccinated against smallpox before the jabs were discontinued. One was vaccinated 13 years ago, another 29 years ago and the third 48 years ago.

“These individuals were unaware that they had been infected because they were spared any recognizable disease symptoms,” Mark Kenneth Slifka of Oregon Health & Sciences University and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the journal Nature Medicine.

“Together, this shows that the U.S. monkeypox outbreak was larger than previously realized and, more importantly, shows that cross-protective antiviral immunity against West African monkeypox can potentially be maintained for decades after smallpox vaccination.”

Smallpox was eradicated in 1979 after a global vaccination program. But experts fear the virus or a related virus could be used as a biological weapon.

About half the U.S. adult population has been vaccinated as part of routine efforts that stopped in 1972 for civilians and 1990 for the military. Studies have shown that immunity lasts as long as 75 years.

Now work is underway to stockpile doses of vaccine in case of an attack, while tests are also underway to see if perhaps some people might be protected by their old vaccinations.

But no one has been able to do a real test of how well the vaccine protects — until the monkeypox outbreak, traced to pet rodents imported from West Africa, where the close relative of smallpox is well entrenched and still common.

Not only does this provide data to allow for the prediction of the effects of a smallpox attack, but it also shows the longevity of the smallpox vaccine.

This is good news.

Technorati Tags: science and technology, science, science & technology, technology

…that is what the West collectively said after World War II.

Here is the latest condemnation of that lie in a line that now stretches over the six decades since.

I have been criticized by those who have cherry-picked and selectively quoted my writings to prove their narrow partisan points when I have dared to consider that the behavior of the US has been less than lily-white during World War II when viewed through the lens of what we now call “terrorism”.

I stated that we stood condemned by the dead.

Now I state that again. We stand condemned by the dead in Darfur.

I wonder if those who chose to selectively quote to score shallow partisan points will repeat their performance.

Never again?

Bull fucking shit…

We are nothing but a bunch of God-damned cowards if we do not insist that our government take real action.

Questionable intelligence regarding WMD in Iraq?

Let’s invade with insufficient planning for the aftermath of what is now disingenuously termed “catastrophic success”.

Death on a scale unprecedented in decades, including that we supposedly invaded Iraq to end?

Neglect it, we have more important things to tend to.

Is it “liberal” or “leftist” to be outraged over this?

If so, then I want to see the “conservatives” and the “right” defend themselves on Judgement Day.

Somehow, I doubt God will be amused or accepting of the excuses.

Outraged?

Yes, I am.

Why are you not?

Technorati Tags: opinion, rants

Continuing a theme upon which I have written before and plan to write upon again before this evening is over, Sarah the Penguin at her new blog Use a Pencil has written a post I recommend highly:

Hate To The Left! Hate To The Right! Stand Up Sit Down Fight, Fight, Fight!

It originates in her experience in radio, and provides a valuable perspective not often heard.

Recommended reading, ’nuff said.

Technorati Tags: recommended reading