Police and public health officials said they had received "a number of calls" so far from people who felt they might be affected by the recall of meat as well as from horrified members of the public.

mmm...Soylent Green.

Calgary Herald - canada.com network

The US House of Representatives just passed a law ("The Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act", but nicknamed the Cheeseburger law) that would protect companies that sell junk food (McDonalds, Burger King, and so on) from obesity lawsuits. A few of these lawsuits have been much in the news lately, using the much-derided argument that "the company made me eat it" through its marketing campaign and pricing policies. While judges have quickly thrown out the few such lawsuits that have come to them, the food companies and the beneficiaries of their campaign funds in the legislature rammed through the bill, supported by the White House. (It still has to pass the Senate, which is considered unlikely.)

Its odd that now that the smoking war is more or less settled, the fat police have picked up the torch. No one eats junk food because it is healthy. Fat food, cigarettes and drugs are all about a dopamine fix. The damage that occurs is largely the fault of the abuser.

Oligopoly Watch

WASHINGTON - March 10 - Last week, a television station purchased the names and addresses of more than 3,000 children, under the name of Ward Weaver, who has been charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of two Oregon City girls, Ashley Pond, 12 and Miranda Gaddis, 13. The TV news story points out the danger of allowing children’s personal information to be bought and sold.

TV Station Bought Personal Info of 3000 Kids in Name of Accused Child Killer

Gerrymandering, the practice of remapping political districts for partisan political gain, is becoming a serious problem. As described in Jeffrey Toobin’s excellent New Yorker article, The Great Election Grab, new computer software allows whatever party controls the state legislature to redraw districts so finely and accurately that of the 435 House seats, only about 30 are actually contested.

Gotta love "democracy" in action.

Gerrymandering: How Politicians Steal Votes and You Can Return Them (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)

"They are removing the church from religious practice, the skin from sadomasochism and the school from schoolchildren. And they may be pointing the way to the future of human interaction.

Each of the subjects of Ann Shin's smart, deadpan new documentary Almost Real are immersed in Internet-driven communities. Included are a monk who leads prayer groups on the Web, a student who works with online tutors, and whip-and-chain-crossed lovers who share abuse and affection via their computers."

Wired News: Living Life in Virtual Reality

"Imagine doing a Google search for a phone number, weather report or sports score. The results page would be filled with links to various sources of information. But what if someone typed in keywords and no results came back?

That's the scenario critics are painting of a new bill wending its way through Congress that would let certain companies own facts, and exact a fee to access them."

"The House Judiciary Committee approved the bill and the commerce committee is expected to review it on Thursday."

Wired News: Hands Off! That Fact Is Mine

] From a former professor:
]
] At Harvard Business School, thirty years ago, George
] Bush was a student of mine. I still vividly remember him.
] In my class, he declared that "people are poor because
] they are lazy." He was opposed to labor unions, social
] security, environmental protection, Medicare, and public
] schools. To him, the antitrust watch dog, the Federal
] Trade Commission, and the Securities Exchange Commission
] were unnecessary hindrances to "free market competition."
] To him, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was "socialism."
] Recently, President Bush's Federal Appeals Court Nominee,
] California's Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown, repeated
] the same broadside at her Senate hearing. She knew that
] her pronouncement would please President Bush and Karl
] Rove and their Senators. President Bush and his brain,
] Karl Rove, are leading a radical revolution of destroying
] all the democratic political, social, judiciary, and
] economic institutions that both Democrats and moderate
] Republicans had built together since Roosevelt's New
] Deal.

[ Yeah... as a Vanderbilt grad, i've had my own exposure to the "people are poor because they don't want to work hard". And as much as i try to be fair to people, it's usually the most intellectually lazy sons and daughters of priviledge that have this opinion. It's a bullshit argument from people who lack any perspective on what a normal human being is like. Bush is a rich kid. He's never been poor, and he's never been close enough to it to have a clue what it means. I don't think he's interested in discovering what it really means to be poor, or what it takes to help people. His policies are transparent, like every so-called fiscal conservative i've ever met. I'm convinced most fiscal conservatives are like most fundamentalist christians... going through the motions, preaching self righteously about beliefs and ideals they don't actually live by, when their true motivating factors are power and greed. You want to support a candidate because he'll hook you up with more money, and fuck the rest? Fine, say so outright. But i'm pretty sick of hearing the "i'm fiscally conservative, but socially liberal" line. Bullshit. 9 times out of 10 you're greedy and want more money... quit sugar coating it. Bush is bad for the average american. Period. -k]

The Bush Social Policy

Fortune magazine recently ran a story describing a study conducted by Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall for the Department of Defense.

Here is the public report of that study. (22 pages)

The purpose of this report is to imagine the unthinkable -- to push the boundaries of current research on climate change so we may better understand the potential implications on United States national security.

We have interviewed leading climate change scientists, conducted additional research, and reviewed several iterations of the scenario with these experts. The scientists support this project, but caution that the scenario depicted is extreme in two fundamental ways. First, they suggest the occurrences we outline would most likely happen in a few regions, rather than globally. Second, they say the magnitude of the event may be considerably smaller.

We have created a climate change scenario that although not the most likely, is plausible, and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately.

National Security Implications of Abrupt Climate Change [PDF]

] Viet Dinh has been called a "political pit bull" and "a
] foot soldier" for Attorney General John Ashcroft. But the
] 36-year-old author of the Patriot Act prefers to be
] called an "attendant of freedom."

I've read through the article, and I must say that although this guy is well-intentioned, I'm still skeptical. He says that we who oppose the Patriot Act need to back up our arguments with facts, but how can we do that when the U.S. government withholds the facts from us? An intriguing read.

Wired News: The Patriot Act Is Your Friend

] One balmy May evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing
] around minding his own business when all of a sudden, a
] policeman pulled-up and demanded that Dudley produce his
] ID. Dudley, having done nothing wrong, declined. He was
] arrested and charged with "failure to cooperate" for
] refusing to show ID on demand. And it's all on video.

An entertaining site about a supreme court case that will decide whether Police can demand ID for people stopped under "reasonable suspicion."

papersplease.org :: Hiibel