Month: March 2004

Iraqi deaths and future troubles. Yesterday’s coordinated bombings in Baghdad and Karbala, which killed at least 145 people — and possibly as many 180 — has led to a surge in anti-Americanism across Iraq as Shi’ites blame the U.S. for security failings. “It is you Americans you have done this!” said a man in the yard outside a Baghdad hospital, moments after he had found his brother lying dead inside. As one of my military sources told me this morning, “It’s a bad time to be in Iraq.” [Back to Iraq 3.0]

Riverbend also wrote about the bombings.

Capitalism With a Human Face: The Movie. Over at Tech Central Station, Amanda Oliver gives two thumbs up to the Oscar-winning film The Barbarian Invasions, which she summarizes thus:

bq. Written and directed by Denys Arcand, The Barbarian Invasions is a witty and articulate film that interweaves intimate drama with social satire. This is a compelling human story yet this movie has also a powerful political voice, with its savage indictment of an ailing state healthcare system and strong stand in favor of free choice. It’s a fresh take on the failures of state education and the ironies of socialist intellectuals. In the world Denys Arcand satirizes, hospital patients are stripped of human dignity and individual rights: administrators take bribes, trade unions have a tight stranglehold, and staff steal from the helpless. Government control goes so far as to forbid patients from transferring from one hospital to another. [Hit & Run]

Congress Repeals Laws. WASHINGTON–Amid concerns about a declining industrial base and outsourcing of high-tech jobs to low-wage countries, a bill to repeal both the Law of Comparative Advantage and the Law of Demand passed both houses of Congress Thursday with near-unanimous bipartisan support…. [Mises Economics Blog: Austrian Economics and Libertarian Political Theory]

Although this is a parody, Congress does repeatedly pass bills that attempt to repeal reality. They’re just more obscure about it.

Bloomberg reports that opium production in Afghanistan is at record levels.  It employs 1.7 m Afghans.  This cash-flow will serve to reinforce the demonstrate the economic value of failed states for terrorist organizations.  State failure = New sources of funding. [John Robb’s Weblog]

The “failed state” in this case is not Afghanistan, but the United States of America, which has ensured that opium sells for vastly inflated prices through the War on Some Drugs.

Great slogan for Americans too. NYT reports that Haitians have a saying: “The Constitution is made of paper; the bayonet is made of steel.” [LewRockwell.com Blog]

Bumper sticker seen on the way to work:

bq. If we don’t vote, will they all go away?

Night of the Long Pipettes. Via reader Jeff Smith comes the news that Bush has changed the lineup on his Council on Bioethics. Unsurprisingly, he’s gotten rid of one of the strongest supporters of therapeutic cloning.

From the Reuters version of the story:

President Bush reshuffled his advisory council on cloning and related medical issues on Friday, adding a prominent neurosurgeon known for his work on conjoined twins and two conservatives who have spoken out strongly against cloning.

He replaced one of the most prominent scientists on his Council on Bioethics, cell biology expert Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California San Francisco. The Australian- born Blackburn has spoken in favor of so-called therapeutic cloning in which cloning technology is used for medical and biological research.

Whole thing here.

Read Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey’s take on the original lineup here.
[Hit & Run]

I haven’t seen a clear explanation of what power this council has, if any. However, even if they turn out to have been given absolute dictatorial power (via the FDA, for example) over stem-cell research and cloning, it wouldn’t matter in the long run. Future Alzheimer sufferers might have to go to a more enlightened country (such as South Korea).

#
Frank Ney at The Libertarian Enterprise –

Banned From Flying – Mr. Ney recently discovered that he is on the
No-Fly list. He has taken on the job of “Editor Reporting on the
Travel Gestapo” at TLE. [tle]
bq.
The reason why I am not happy about taking this job is the simple fact
that this job should not exist. We should not be having to worry about
finding ourselves on some government list that denies us the freedom
to travel as we please. TSA and Homeland Security should not exist
— not as they are now, not in some more efficient, “kinder and
gentler” form either. We should not have to live in fear of official
“under the table” retaliation for exercising our constitutional
rights, if this is in fact what happened and I’m reasonably sure it
is. This is the United States of America, not 1970’s Eastern Europe
thank-you-very-much.
[End the War on Freedom]

L. Neil Smith has already written a comment on this. Although I don’t know Mr. Ney personally, I’ve been reading his posts on the web and Usenet for years. Given his involvement with anime conventions, it’s entirely possible that I’ve met him without realizing it. From his writing it’s apparent that his political beliefs are practically identical to mine.

His addition to the “banned from travel” list tells me that my name will be added. It may take months or years to happen, because I’m a nobody and post about my political beliefs mostly in this obscure weblog, but sooner or later whatever bureaucrat is responsible for adding people to the list will get around to me. For that matter, it may have already happened–it all depends on whether some obscure government thug has turned up my name in a Google search or not.

Now, this might not seem to concern my directly, since I’ve already decided not to fly for as long as our airports resemble Checkpoint Charlie (which probably means “for the rest of my life”), but as Mr. Ney points out, this list will eventually be applied to rail and road travel. I’m sure the Terrorist Safety Administration goons are just waiting for an excuse to begin providing terrorists with safe and secure work environments on the nations railways and roads.