Attack on Iraq could lead to nuclear war

If Iraq launched missles into Israel when were attacking them, then....
"Israel’s likely reaction would be nuclear ground bursts against every Iraqi city not already occupied by US-led coalition forces. Senators were told that, unlike the 1991 Gulf War, when Washington urged Israel not to retaliate against Iraqi missile strikes, Israeli leaders have decided that their credibility would be hurt if they failed to react this time."

The Mental State of the Union

An article in the newest issue of the Thresher, by SF writer John Shirley.

a quote:

"What is insanity? Among other things, it's the idea that we're immune to consequences. A madman thinks he's invulnerable, at times-when he's not being paranoid, as our Sane Leaders were in the McCarthy era. We think we can dump billions of pounds of toxins into ourselves-and not have one in three people come down with cancer and one in five with a psychiatric disorder. We are insane as a society. We are far more asleep, more automatic, more mechanistic in our reactions, our behavior than we know-and that is something psychiatry diagnoses as disassociation."

The Chronicle: 8/2/2002: Copyright as Cudgel

"Back in the 20th century, if someone had accused you of copyright infringement, you enjoyed that quaint and now seemingly archaic guarantee of due process. Today, due process is a lot harder to pursue, and the burden of proof increasingly is on those accused of copyright infringement. For the copyright act, in essence, makes the owner of every Internet service provider, content host, and search engine an untrained copyright cop. The default action is censorship."

Pharmacutical monopoly on natural health information

"Currently, despite growing opposition from health groups world-wide, the Codex Commission is marching steadily towards adoption of its own strict guidelines for these substances. The Codex will (1) prohibit dissemination of health-related information concerning vitamins, amino acids, minerals and other natural products for prevention and treatment of illnesses, and (2) (b) prohibit distribution of vitamins and other natural products which exceed the guidelines of the Codex Commission. Countries failing to comply will be punished by WTO with economic sanctions."

AlterNet -- Reforming Rockefeller Drug Laws

"Dunne became aware of the disastrous effects of mandatory minimums while working for the first President George Bush. As assistant attorney general for civil rights, he was responsible for investigating rights violations in federal prisons. He saw those prisons filling up with nonviolent offenders because of the same sort of mandatory sentencing rules he'd pushed through in New York. That was never his intention, he says; he'd meant the Rockefeller laws to be used against kingpins."

Guerrilla Marketing

Coming soon - the stranger that you meet in the bar might not really be interested in you at all, but rather a plant for a company to generate fake buzz about products that have just been or will soon be released. As one of the minions of the devil puts it:

"It is reprehensible and desperate," says Paul MacFarlane, co-owner of ... a small ad firm in St. Louis, "They are trying to fabricate something that should be natural."

Right, natural.

Obedience as a function of Western Culture

An interesting article on K5 regarding the Milgram experiments, where participants were put in to the role of "teachers" and then told to administer strong electric shocks to "students" when they answered questions incorrectly. Profound description of an misunderstood part of Western society- namely that personal ethics are generally pushed aside in favor of "following orders".

"A religious person who has been brought up to defer to authority is more likely to obey than an atheist. When Milgram's study was duplicated in West Germany, where the population is not as religious , the rates of obedience were just over fifty percent. Essentially, the people in the Milgram and Milgram-inspired studies were not being cruel because they wished to. They were attempting to conform to the norms of Western culture."

How Conservative Is President Bush?

"Although elected on a Reaganesque, tax-cutting platform, the White House has veered to the left. President Bush has signed a bill to regulate political speech, issued protectionist taxes on imported steel and lumber, backed big-spending education and farm bills, and endorsed massive new entitlements for mental health care and prescription drugs. When the numbers are added up, in fact, it looks like President Bush is less conservative than President Clinton."

Atheists face discrimination

There are clauses in 7 state constitutions that discriminate against atheists.

"Disqualifications of office. The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God."

Buffalo News - Clean Sweep gets praise and criticism

In Buffalo, NY, the police went from door to door through an entire neighborhood, asking to be let in to inspect each premises for "quality of life" law transgressions, including smoke detector placement/operation, illegal cable TV hook ups, code violations, and "social services concerns".

All our rights erode away, doo dah, doo dah....

AlterNet -- Bomb Saddam, Save the G.O.P.

"This is not about the security of the United States," said this card-carrying Republican while pounding the lectern. "This is about domestic American politics. The national security of the United States of America has been hijacked by a handful of neo-conservatives who are using their position of authority to pursue their own ideologically-driven political ambitions. The day we go to war for that reason is the day we have failed collectively as a nation."

U.S. Prepares for Iraq Invasion

“As the debate over a potential U.S. attack on Iraq continues in Washington
and abroad, a subtle increase in the mobilization of Army combat troops is
underway. This development offers a hint to the Pentagon's evolving Iraq
strategy, with the specific units involved indicating that a conventional
attack on Iraq could be slated for January or February, with a major thrust
possibly coming from Turkey.”