`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
passible (PAS-uh-buhl) adjective

Capable of feeling, especially pain or suffering;
susceptible to sensation.

[From Middle English, from Middle Latin passibilis,
from Latin passus, past participle of pati (to
suffer).]

"Only the most sensitive of seats in the thinnest of
pants worn by the most passible of owners will detect
differing harmonies of the Accords." Paul Dean, Honda
Finally Comes to an Accord With a V-6, The Los Angeles
Times, Nov 25, 1994.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphic of the Day -- Lindheimer Cactus
```````````````````````````````````````````````
http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/gotd/0010cactus.htm
-by David J. L'Hoste

Last Issue: One Shell Square
http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/gotd/70oneshellsq.htm
-by David J. L'Hoste
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Mary Cornish
`````````````````````````````````````````````
Numbers
Mary Cornish
I like the generosity of numbers.
The way, for example,
they are willing to count
anything or anyone:
two pickles, one door to the room,
eight dancers dressed as swans.

I like the domesticity of addition--
add two cups of milk and stir--
the sense of plenty: six plums
on the ground, three more
falling from the tree.

And multiplication's school
of fish times fish,
whose silver bodies breed
beneath the shadow
of a boat.

Even subtraction is never loss,
just addition somewhere else:
five sparrows take away two,
the two in someone else's
garden now.

There's an amplitude to long division,
as it opens Chinese take-out
box by paper box,
inside every folded cookie
a new fortune.

And I never fail to be surprised
by the gift of an odd remainder,
footloose at the end:
forty-seven divided by eleven equals four,
with three remaining.

Three boys beyond their mothers' call,
two Italians off to the sea,
one sock that isn't anywhere you look.

from Poetry magazine
Volume CLXXVI, Number 3, June 2000

Copyright 2000 by The Modern Poetry Association.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Photography
`````````````````````````````````````````````
THE photo.net website:
http://www.photo.net/

Best online photo store:
www.bhphotovideo.com/

Beautiful conceptual photos from Misha Gordin
http://www.bsimple.com/

Photos by Roman Loranc
http://romanloranc.com/
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- Fishy Lipstick
`````````````````````````````````````````````
OSLO (Reuters) - That lipstick you're dabbing on for
tonight's big Valentine's date may have a bit more to
it than meets the eye.

A Norwegian biotech company said Thursday that it sees
a booming business in providing cod sperm for use in
cosmetics.

Maritex, among the world's largest producers of cod
liver oil, said it aimed to produce seven tonnes of
processed cod sperm in 2002 for the international
makeup market after pilot output in 2001.

But don't worry that your loved one will think there's
something fishy about your kisses.

"It neither smells nor tastes of anything," said Frank
Hansen, a biotech engineer at Maritex, which believes
it is the world's main producer of cod sperm for
cosmetics. The sperm is used to bind water in body
lotions and make-up.

"It is much better to make a water binder from a
natural product than to concoct a chemical cocktail to
do the same job," Hansen said. He added that cod sperm
extract was also used in medicines and breast milk
substitutes.

Processed cod sperm sells for around $200 a kilogram
(2.2 pounds), depending on its purity, Hansen said.
--
From Reuters:http: //reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List -- Ersatz Climate Policy
`````````````````````````````````````````````
February 15, 2002

 Ersatz Climate Policy
 By PAUL KRUGMAN
Alert shoppers know that an extra word in a product's
description can make a big difference, and rarely for
the better. Apologies to connoisseurs of Velveeta, but
most of us don't regard "cheese food" as a good
substitute for plain ordinary cheese.

To the unwary, yesterday's pledge by the Bush
administration to reduce "greenhouse gas intensity" by
18 percent may have sounded like a pledge to reduce
greenhouse gases, the emissions (mainly carbon dioxide,
released by burning fossil fuels) that cause global
warming. In fact, that's the way it was reported in
some news articles. But the extra word makes all the
difference. In fact, the administration proposed to
achieve almost nothing; consistent with that goal, it
also announced specific policies that are trivial in
scope and will have virtually no effect.

What is this thing called greenhouse gas intensity? It
is the volume of greenhouse gas emissions divided by
gross domestic product. The administration says that it
will reduce this ratio by 18 percent over the next
decade. But since most forecasts call for G.D.P. to
expand 30 percent or more over the same period, this is
actually a proposal to allow a substantial increase in
emissions.

Still, doesn't holding the growth of emissions to less
than the growth of the economy show at least some
effort to face up to climate change? No, because that
would happen anyway. In fact, the administration's
target for reduction in greenhouse gas intensity might
well be achieved without any policy actions — which is
good news, because the administration hasn't really
proposed any.

The reasons greenhouse gas intensity tends to fall over
time are complex, but the basic logic is simple: We are
gradually becoming a post-industrial society, in which
knowledge and service industries grow faster than the
old smokestack sector. Because pushing bits around
doesn't take as much energy as pushing around large
pieces of sheet metal, a dollar of new-economy G.D.P.
generally doesn't require burning as much carbon as a
dollar of old-economy G.D.P.

But the old economy is still there, and the new economy
still uses significant amounts of energy — especially
if office workers drive S.U.V.'s long distances on
their way from house to mouse and back. So as the
economy grows, greenhouse gas intensity may fall, but
greenhouse gas emissions — which are what damages the
planet — continue to rise.

So what does the Bush administration propose to do?
Nothing much.

The main actual policy described yesterday was an array
of tax credits for planet-friendly activities, such as
installing solar power or capturing methane from
landfill. It's not worth trying to analyze the
specifics of this proposal, such as why tax credits
should be the tool of choice. (Oh, I forgot — tax cuts
are the answer to all problems.) The key point is that
it's just too small to do the job. It offers $4.6
billion over the next five years. That's less than a
penny a day per American. Do you really think that's
enough to produce a major change in the way we use
energy, or that it is an appropriate level of response
to a major threat to the planet?

And that's the substantive part of the proposal. The
other part is creation of a "registry": companies can,
if they choose, report their emissions of greenhouse
gases. If they show reductions in emissions, they will
receive — well, nothing. But future administrations
might be pleased.

The real question is why an administration that clearly
doesn't want to do anything about climate change feels
obliged to put on this show.

The answer, of course, is that on environmental issues
the administration is clearly out of step with the
public. Its indifference to the fate of the planet
would be quite unpopular if it were generally
appreciated.

To deal with this potential political threat, the Bush
administration exaggerates the economic costs of
environmental regulations. Last spring Dick Cheney
implied, disingenuously, that environmental rules had
caused a shortage of refining capacity; now George W.
Bush tells us, implausibly, that the Kyoto Protocol
will destroy millions of jobs.

Meanwhile the administration offers the illusion of
environmentalism, by announcing policies that sound
impressive but are nearly content-free.

So buyers beware. What the administration offered
yesterday was processed climate-change policy food,
bearing very little resemblance to the real thing.

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
--
From The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

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                        08 March 2002
             On this date in 1983 IBM released
   PC DOS version 2.0, licensed from you know who.
       
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- bloviate
2. Graphic of the Day -- Golden silk spiders
3. Quote of the Day -- Ronald Koertge
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Humor - Dave Barryisms
6. More Humor - W waves to Stevie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
bloviate (BLO-vee-ayt) verb intr.

   To speak pompously.

[Pseudo-Latin alteration of blow, to boast; popularized by 29th US
President, Warren G. Harding (1865-1923).]

   "The Legislature bloviates about protecting our youth and being sure
   that no one is left behind. But at the first sign of trouble, it's
   showing indications that it's more concerned with politics than
   education."
   Backing Off in Albany, The Buffalo News, Nov 8, 1999.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphic of the Day -- Golden silk spiders
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Golden silk spiders:
http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/gotd/0008nephilaclavipes.htm
-by David J. L'Hoste

Last Issue: Lindheimer Cactus
http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/gotd/0010cactus.htm
-by David J. L'Hoste
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Ronald Koertge
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
An Infinite Number of Monkeys
Ronald Koertge *

After all the Shakespeare, the book
of poems they type is the saddest
in history.

But before they can finish it,
they have to wait for that Someone
who is always

looking to look away. Only then
can they strike the million
keys that spell

humiliation and grief, which are
the great subjects of Monkey
Literature

and not, as some people still
believe, the banana
and the tire.

* pronounced KUR-chee
from Making Love to Roget's Wife, 1997
University of Arkansas Press

Copyright 1997 by Ronald Koertge.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
American Field Guide
http://www.pbs.org/americanfieldguide/index.html

Presidents of the United States
http://www.ipl.org/ref/POTUS/

Windows xp sperguide
http://www.cnet.com/software/0-6688749.html
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another:http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Humor -- Dave Barryisms
`````````````````````````````````````````````
Quotes by Dave Barry:

Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have
the same hobby. (This is also true of religion, although
you will not find me saying so in print.)

Experts agree that the best type of computer for your
individual needs is one that comes on the market about
two days after you actually purchase some other computer.

Crabgrass can grow on bowling balls in airless rooms, and
there is no known way to kill it that does not involve
nuclear weapons.

American consumers have no problem with carcinogens,
but they will not purchase any product, including floor wax,
that has fat in it.

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and
saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's
life without even considering if there are men on base.

Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy,
overweight Protestants, today it's open to anybody
who owns hideous clothing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. More Humor -- W waves to Stevie
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Reliable Source (from the Washington Post)
Lloyd Grove with Barbara E. Martinez
Wednesday, March 6, 2002

Here's a vignette we're dying to see on the ABC broadcast of Sunday's Ford's
Theatre Presidential Gala: When Stevie Wonder sat down at the keyboard center
stage, President Bush in the front row got very excited. He smiled and started
waving at Wonder, who understandably did not respond. After a moment
Bush realized his mistake and slowly dropped the errant hand back to
his lap. "I know I shouldn't have," a witness told us yesterday, "but I started laughing."

© 2002 The Washington Post Company
--
From Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45517-2002Mar6.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

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                   22 March 2002
On this day in 1972 Nick Mileti purchased
the Cleveland Indians for $9 million. This year
shortstop Alex Rodriguez signed a contract
with the Texas Rangers for years 2001-10 for
                   $252,000,000.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- dotty
2. Graphics of the Day -- California Coast
3. Quote of the Day -- R.T. Smith
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Thought for the Day
6. Weird News - a) DWT worse than DWI b)TIMBER!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
dotty (DOT-ee) adjective
  1. Mentally unbalanced; crazy. Amusingly eccentric or unconventional.
     Ridiculous or absurd.
  2. Having a feeble or unsteady gait; shaky.
  3. Obsessively infatuated or enamored.

[Probably alteration of Scots dottle, silly, from Middle English doten, to
dote.]

   "Woodward and Holm play Martha and Abbey, the dotty old sisters who serve
   elderberry wine laced with poison to unsuspecting tea-time visitors, then
   bury the stiffs in their basement."
   Robert Osborne, Baldwin serves up his staged readings with taste of
   `Arsenic', Hollywood Reporter, Nov 1, 2000.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- California Coast
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
California Coast
http://lhostelaw.com/calif/020322gotd.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

Last Issue: Golden silk spiders:
http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/gotd/0008nephilaclavipes.htm
-by David J. L'Hoste
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- R.T. Smith
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Hardware Sparrows

Out for a deadbolt, light bulbs
and two-by-fours, I find a flock
of sparrows safe from hawks

and weather under the roof
of Lowe's amazing discount
store. They skitter from the racks

of stockpiled posts and hoses
to a spill of winter birdseed
on the concrete floor. How

they know to forage here,
I can't guess, but the automatic
door is close enough,

and we've had a week
of storms. They are, after all,
ubiquitous, though poor,

their only song an irritating
noise, and yet they soar
to offer, amid hardware, rope

and handyman brochures,
some relief, as if a flurry
of notes from Mozart swirled

from seed to ceiling, entreating
us to set aside our evening
chores and take grace where

we find it, saying it is possible,
even in this month of flood,
blackout and frustration,

to float once more on sheer
survival and the shadowy
bliss we exist to explore.

From Messenger by R. T. Smith.
Copyright © 2001 by R. T. Smith.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
USDA Forest Service
http://www.fs.fed.us/links/forests.html

U.S. National Parks
http://www.us-national-parks.net/
http://www.nps.gov/

Photographic Atlas of the Moon
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/lunar_orbiter/index.html

The National Museum of Natural History
http://www.mnh.si.edu/
--
HotSites Archive:http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Thought for the Day -- Dyson
`````````````````````````````````````````````
To me, to worship God means to recognize that
 mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our
universe in a way that altogether surpasses our comprehension.
  -- Freeman Dyson (http://www.nybooks.com/authors/514)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News -- a) DWT worse than DWI b) TIMBER!
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Report: Mobile Phone Users Worse Than Drunk Drivers
March 22, 2002
LONDON (Reuters) - Motorists talking on mobile phones while
driving are more dangerous than those who are over the legal
drink-driving limit, a report said on Thursday.

Tests conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory, Berkshire, England,
showed that drivers' reaction times were on average 30 percent slower when
talking on a hand-held mobile compared to when they have been drinking alcohol.

It took mobile users half a second longer to react than normal and a third
of a second longer than when they had been drinking.

They were also less able to maintain a constant speed and found it
harder to keep a safe distance from the car in front.

Direct Line insurance, which commissioned the research, said that four out of
10 drivers admit to using a mobile phone when driving.

Dominic Burch, road safety campaign manager at Direct Line,
said: "We were surprised to discover that talking on a mobile phone is
actually more dangerous than being drunk behind the wheel.

"In effect this means that 10 million drivers are partaking in a driving
activity that is potentially more dangerous than being drunk."

Tests showed that hands-free mobile phones were also a considerable
distraction, added Burch.

Direct Line said it would support MP Janet Anderson who is campaigning
to make it an offence for motorists to use hand-held phones while driving.
The second reading of her bill is due to take place on April 12.

Burch added: "Eventually we would like to see the use of mobile phones
when driving, both hands-held and hands-free, become as socially
unacceptable as drink driving."
===========
Man Saws Down Tree, Kills Wife
March 19, 2002

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man who sawed down a tree in his garden
accidentally killed his wife when the tree fell on her, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The man, 66, decided to cut down the birch to protect passers-by because
it had become unstable after a recent storm, Bild daily said.

His wife, 66, was standing in the street to warn passing cars when the tree
crashed down on her head. She died later in hospital.
--
From Reuters:
http://reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

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                   04 April 2002
On this day in 1974 the World Trade
 Center opens in NYC (110 stories)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- corybantic
2. Graphics of the Day -- Tulips, 2002
3. Quote of the Day -- Ronald Koertge
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Weird News - Suicide Litigant?
6. Reading List - a) Representing A Client's Murderer and b)Why Isn't It Good For The Gander?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
corybantic (kor-i-BAN-tik) adjective

   Wild; frenzied; uncontrolled.

[After Corybant, an ancient priest of Phrygian goddess Cybele, who
performed wild ecstatic dances in her worship.]

   "The radio is nothing but a conduit through which pre-fabricated din
   can flow into our homes. And this din goes far deeper, of course, than
   the eardrums. It penetrates the mind, filling it with a babble of
   distractions, blasts of corybantic or sentimental music, continually
   repeated doses of drama that bring no catharsis, but usually create
   a craving for daily or even hourly emotional enemas."
   Aldous Huxley, On Silence, 1946.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- Tulips, 2002
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Tulips, 2002
http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/gotd/0204talltulips.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

Last Issue:
California Coast
http://lhostelaw.com/calif/020322gotd.htm
by David J. L'Hoste
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Ronald Koertge
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Sidekicks
by Ronald Koertge *

They were never handsome and often came
with a hormone imbalance manifested by corpulence,
a yodel of a voice or ears big as kidneys.

But each was brave. More than once a sidekick
has thrown himself in front of our hero in order
to receive the bullet or blow meant for that
perfect face and body.

Thankfully, heroes never die in movies and leave
the sidekick alone. He would not stand for it.
Gabby or Pat, Pancho or Andy remind us of a part
of ourselves,

the dependent part that can never grow up,
the part that is painfully eager to please,
always wants a hug and never gets enough.

Who could sit in a darkened theatre, listen
to the organ music and watch the best
of ourselves lowered into the ground while
the rest stood up there, tears pouring off
that enormous nose.

 from Life on the Edge of the Continent: Selected Poems, 1982
University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark.

Copyright 1982 by the Board of Trustees of the
University of Arkansas. All rights reserved.

* pronounced KUR-chee
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
How Far Is It?
http://www.indo.com/distance/

The Food Timeline
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/food.html

Plan A Road Trip
http://www.randmcnally.com/rmc/road/rtgHome.jsp

Health Tutorials
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials.html
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- Suicide Litigant?
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Woman Hangs Self in Jail, Wants to Sue
 Thu Apr 4, 8:55 AM ET

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - A murder suspect who
hanged herself in a Florida jail left a suicide note
asking her lawyer to sue the jail for failing to
prevent her from killing herself, authorities said.

Laren Sims, who was being held in a Hernando County,
Florida, jail awaiting extradition to California,
suggested any money from the lawsuit could be used to
support her two children.

Sims, 36, was found in her cell on Saturday and died a
day later. She was charged in San Joaquin County,
California, with killing husband Larry McNabney and
burying him in a vineyard.

"This is all I can give to my children. ...My actions
now will allow them to move into the future without
this heavy burden. They won't have to watch my trial on
Court TV," Sims wrote to her attorney Tom Hogan in the
note dated Friday. "It should all die with me.

In her suicide note, which was found in a sandwich
wrapper, Sims said she was not checked regularly in her
cell.

Steven Owen, spokesman for Corrections Corporation of
America, the company that operates the jail, said
Wednesday an internal investigation by the company
found Sims was properly supervised.

"If somebody is so determined to commit suicide then
it's hard to stop them," Owen said.
--
From Reuters:
http://reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - a) Representing A Client's Murderer and b)Why Isn't It Good For The Gander?
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
From the Washington Post

A Terrible Decision
Wednesday, April 3, 2002;
Page A22

THE RIGHT to be represented by a
lawyer in a criminal case has taken
some serious blows in recent years. Still, the case of
Walter Mickens Jr. didn't seem like a tough one. If the
right of a capital defendant to have a lawyer means
anything at all, surely it means that an accused
murderer cannot be unknowingly represented by his
victim's lawyer. Alas, it turns out the Sixth Amendment
right to counsel doesn't even mean that. Not, at least,
according to the five justices of the Supreme Court of
the United States who last week affirmed Mr. Mickens's
conviction and death sentence. The decision offers a
window on just how little the court majority cares
about ensuring the most basic elements of fairness in
criminal trials.

Mr. Mickens was accused in Virginia of
killing a youth named Timothy Hall. The evidence
against him was powerful, and he probably would have
been convicted -- and may even have been sentenced to
death -- with reasonable representation. We'll never
know. For the lawyer appointed to represent him, Bryan
Saunders, had been previously representing Mr. Hall in
another case -- right up until Mr. Hall's death.
Moreover, the very judge who days later appointed Mr.
Saunders to handle the murder case had presided in Mr.
Hall's own case. The glaring conflict inherent in the
representation was never disclosed to Mr. Mickens
either by the judge or by Mr. Saunders, so the accused
never had the chance to ask for a different lawyer.

In any reasonable system, these facts would necessitate a
new trial. After all, a lawyer with a residual duty to
the victim may be unable to make every argument that
could help his accused killer. Having a conflicted
lawyer is akin to having no lawyer at all; in some
situations it can be worse. Yet the court majority
insisted that a new trial should be automatic only when
the lawyer objects at trial that he has a conflict in
representing the accused. This didn't happen in Mr.
Mickens's case, because neither Mr. Saunders nor the
judge appreciated the magnitude of the problem. As a
consequence, the court held, Mr. Mickens now must show
that his representation at trial was somehow impaired
as a result of the conflict. Because he can't do this,
his conviction stands, and Virginia can execute him.

The court's reasoning is perverse. Under its logic, a
convict is entitled to automatic reversal if his lawyer
is ethical enough to object to a conflict. But if the
lawyer hides the conflict from his client -- and the
judge does nothing to ensure conflict-free
representation -- the accused has a heightened burden.
The client, in other words, gets punished if his
lawyer, in addition to being conflicted, behaves
unethically. Moreover, Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion
seems to suggest that there is no conflict so total
that -- even without an objection -- it mandates
reversal. This can't be right. Could the victim's
brother have represented his accused killer? Or maybe
crime victims themselves may represent accused
criminals without informing their clients. There has to
be some line -- and these facts cross any reasonable
line one could draw. As Justice John Paul Stevens put
it in dissent, "A rule that allows the State to foist a
murder victim's lawyer onto his accused [killer] is not
only capricious; it poisons the integrity of our
adversary system of justice."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company

Read the Court's Opinion:
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-9285.ZS.html

====

From Rocky Mountain News

To print this page, select File then Print from your
browser URL:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_1058202,00.html

A highly partisan silence April 1, 2002 When President
Bush's Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, told congressional
leaders this week that he planned to borrow tens of billions of
dollars from federal employee retirement accounts to
avoid a government default, Republicans in Congress
just shrugged.

"A Treasury secretary's gotta do what a Treasury
secretary's gotta do" seemed to be the attitude. When
President Clinton's Treasury secretary, Robert Rubin,
did the same thing in 1995-96, House Republicans
threatened to impeach him. House Rules Committee
Chairman Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., said he would "support
impeachment proceedings should (Rubin) continue to
bypass the Constitution." Rep. Christopher Cox, R-
Calif., said he might launch hearings "dedicated to a
political resolution of this matter," i.e., force Rubin
from office.

Former Republican attorneys general Edwin Meese and
William Barr produced a legal opinion that Rubin was
unconstitutionally usurping Congress' powers. And
earlier, the GOP-controlled House had voted 253-105 to
stop Rubin from doing exactly what O'Neill is proposing
to do.

Both Treasury secretaries faced the same problem. The
government was bumping up against the ceiling on
federal debt, $4.9 trillion for Rubin, $5.95 trillion
for O'Neill. Swapping employee retirement funds for
IOUs gives the government enough of a cushion under the
debt ceiling to avoid defaulting on its bonds.

In Rubin's case, he probably did the Newt Gingrich-led
Republicans a favor by thwarting their stunningly ill-
advised strategy of trying to get their way on the
budget by forcing a government shutdown. Time and
public opinion were running against the Republicans,
and Rubin's ploy was buying time for the Clinton
administration.

Although the atmosphere is far less poisonous, O'Neill
faces similar political gamesmanship. Bush and other
Republicans want the debt limit increased enough so it
won't have to be raised again until 2004. Democrats
want smaller increases in the belief that having to
limit more often will highlight the administration's
deficit spending.

So if what Rubin did was so unconstitutional then, why
isn't there an outcry for O'Neill's impeachment now?
Hypocrisy, perhaps, but maybe maturity too.

If no action were taken, the federal government would
surpass the debt limit and go into technical default,
appropriately enough, on April Fools' Day.
Copyright 2002, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights
Reserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

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                   19 April 2002

On this day in 1966, Roberta Bignay became
the 1st woman to run in the Boston Marathon

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- ullage
2. Graphic of the Day -- Greens, 2002
3. Quote of the Day -- G.E. Patterson
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Weird News - Bed Testers Only Warned
6. Reading List - a) White Should Quit b) I wouldn't want to be on Nino's chain gang!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
ullage (UL-ij) noun

The amount of liquid by which a container falls short of being full.

[Middle English ulage, from Old French eullage, from eullier, to fill a
cask, (from ouil eye, hole, from Latin oculus eye).]

WordPix: http://wordsmith.org/words/ullage.gif

"`Is the gas tank half-empty or half-full,' Grouler continued driving
while pondering the ullage and soon he was out of gas 47 miles
from the nearest gas station."
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- Greens, 2002
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Greens, 2002
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204greens.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

Last Issue:
Tulips, 2002
http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/gotd/0204talltulips.htm
by David J. L'Hoste
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- G.E. Patterson
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Autobiographia
G.E. Patterson

I had everything and luck: Rings of smoke
blown for me; sunlight safe inside the leaves
of cottonwoods; pure, simple harmonies
of church music, echoes of slave songs; scraps
of candy wrappers -- airborne. Everything.
Mother and father, brother, aunts, uncles;
chores and schoolwork and playtime. Everything.

I was given gloves against winter cold.
I was made to wear gloves when I gardened.
I was made to garden; taught to hold forks
in my left hand when cutting, in my right
when bringing food to my mouth. Everything.

I had clothes I was told not to wear outside;
a face you could clean up almost handsome;
I had friends to fight with and secrets, spread
all over the neighborhood; the best teachers,
white and colored. I'm not making this up.
I knew that I had everything. Still do.

from Tug, 1999
Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Copyright 1999 by G.E. Patterson.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
Statistical Resources on the Web
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html

TEOMA (new search engine may rival GOOGLE)
http://www.teoma.com/

Total News (news search engine)
http://www.totalnews.com/

Software Turtorials (submitted by Jean L'Hoste)
http://www.webmasterbase.com/tutorials/
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- Bed Testers Only Warned
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Couple Tests Water Beds in After-Hours Romp
Wed Apr 17,8:09 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A young German couple hid in a
bed shop after closing time and passionately tested
the water beds for several hours before being caught
by police, officials said Wednesday. The couple, aged
17 and 21, were discovered by police in the western
city of Porta Westfalica after shop alarms went off as
they tried to leave through an emergency exit at midnight.
Police said the shop did not press charges against the
couple and police let them go with a warning about the
costs of false alarms.
--
From Reuters:
http://reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - a) White Should Quit b) I wouldn't want to be on Nino's chain gang!
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
April 18, 2002
The Army Secretary's Duty
Army Secretary Thomas White has repeatedly pledged
that if questions stemming from his ties to Enron became
too much of a distraction, he would resign. They now have,
and he should.

Mr. White is a West Point graduate who served two tours
of duty in Vietnam and eventually rose to be a
brigadier general on Colin Powell's staff in the late
1980's. He then worked as an Enron executive for 11
years. Federal investigators are trying to determine
whether he violated insider-trading laws when he
unloaded $12.1 million worth of Enron stock last year,
between June and October. This is only one of several
inquiries Mr. White is likely to be facing in coming
months. When he was tapped by the Bush administration
for the Pentagon post, he was vice chairman of Enron's
Energy Services unit. That operation has since been
accused by former employees of having engaged in the
types of improper accounting that led to the company's
downfall, though Mr. White denies any wrongdoing.

After initially underreporting the number in response
to Congressional inquiries, Mr. White ultimately
acknowledged having had 84 phone calls, attempted calls
and meetings with current or former Enron employees in
his first 10 months as Army secretary. He insists,
however, that he never sold stock based on what anyone
at Enron told him, and points out that he did not sell
some of his holdings until after the company went into
a tailspin.

Whether or not he committed any crimes, Mr. White has
shown a troubling disregard for the ethical
responsibilities that come with public service. The
chairman and the ranking Republican member of the
Senate Armed Services Committee rebuked him for failing
to abide by the ethics agreement that required him to
fully divest himself in a timely fashion of his stake
in Enron. After being given repeated extensions until
the end of last November, Mr. White held onto options
to buy 665,000 company shares until the middle of
January. On yet another ethical front, the Pentagon's
inspector general is looking into allegations that Mr.
White has improperly used government planes for
personal travel.

Mr. White's most damning liability may be his own
résumé. His affiliation with the once-vaunted Enron,
the credential that got him hired by the Bush
administration, is looking more like a disqualifier a
year later. If the president was looking for a canny
administrator who could make things work, he was
obviously looking at the wrong company.

Either Mr. White was a perpetrator in Enron's sham
accounting or he was hoodwinked by the likes of Jeffrey
Skilling and Andrew Fastow. He pleads the latter,
saying he and other executives at Enron's various
business units had no way of knowing of the destructive
self-dealing with offshore partnerships orchestrated by
the company's two top executives, with the board's
approval.

That claim is somewhat undermined by his own unit's
aggressive accounting, the number of Enron executives
who did express concern about the company's ways and
Mr. White's ethical lapses since he entered government.
But even if it were true, his blissful ignorance about
Enron's true state of affairs would hardly commend him
for his current office, where he is entrusted by
taxpayers to oversee a complex bureaucracy and
intricate weapons-procurement programs.

The time has come for Mr. White to acknowledge that he
no longer has the credibility to fulfill his mission at
the Pentagon. The honorable course would be to resign.

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
==
b) Nino's Chain Gang
http://slate.msn.com//?id=2064440
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

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                   1 May 2002

On this day in 1986, Tass reported
Chernobyl nuclear power plant mishap

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- flotsam and jetsam
2. Graphic of the Day -- Geranium , 2002
3. Quote of the Day -- Ron Padgett
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Weird News - Well, Here's Your Problem Right Here, Ma'am
6. Reading List - a) Big Oil In The Hot Seat b) WANTED: MORE HUNTERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
flotsam (FLOT-suhm) noun

   1. Wreckage or cargo that remains afloat after a ship has sunk. Floating
      refuse or debris.

   2. Discarded odds and ends.

   3. Vagrant, usually destitute people.

[Anglo-Norman floteson, from Old French floter, to float, of Germanic origin.]
 
   "Blaustein's office at Rutgers University in Camden, N.J., where he
   teaches law, is stacked with fat volumes of far-flung national charters,
   as well as the flotsam of a globe-hopping life: hundreds of do-not-disturb
   doorknob signs, matchbooks, ballpoint pens, luggage tags ... "
   Section II Quirks & Quacks in Trivial Pursuit of Constitutional Oddities,
   Life, 31 Aug 1987.
 
--
jetsam (JET-suhm) noun

   1. Cargo or equipment thrown overboard to lighten a ship in distress.

   2. Discarded cargo or equipment found washed ashore.

   3. Discarded odds and ends.

[From earlier jetson, alteration of Middle English jetteson, a throwing
overboard.]
 
   "Stray asteroids and interplanetary jetsam are unlikely to daunt the
   architects of the international space station, due now to be launched in
   1998. Such extra-terrestrial shrapnel will seem mild after the
   bombardment it has been subjected to on the ground. America's Congress has
   made 16 attempts to kill the project since Ronald Reagan unveiled it in
   1984 (at an estimated cost of a mere $8 billion). Congress's General
   Accounting Office now believes that the station will swallow up $94
   billion by the end of its life."
   No free launch, The Economist, 27 Jan 1996.
--
>From A Word A Day:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphic of the Day -- Geranium, 2002
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Geranium, 2002
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204geraniumbuds.htm

Last Issue:
Greens, 2002
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204greens.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Ron Padgett
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Ladies and Gentlemen in Outer Space
Ron Padgett

Here is my philosophy:
Everything changes (the word "everything"
has just changed as the
word "change" has: it now
means "no change") so
quickly that it literally surpasses my belief,
charges right past it
like some of the giant
ideas in this area.
I had no beginning and I shall have
no end: the beam of light
stretches out before and behind
and I cook the vegetables
for a few minutes only,
the fewer the better. Butter
and serve. Here is my
philosophy: butter and serve.

 from New & Selected Poems, 1963 — 1992, 1995
David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc.

Copyright 2001 by Ron Padgett.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm

The Interent Movie Database
http://us.imdb.com/

ConsumerSearch
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/

All Experts - Ask a question!
http://www.allexperts.com/
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- Well, Here's Your Problem Right Here, Ma'am
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Well, Here's Your Problem Right Here, Ma'am
April 30, 2002 09:08 AM ET

DHAKA (Reuters) - A Bangladeshi snake charmer called in
to find two serpents in a suburban home near the
capital unearthed over 3,000 deadly cobras and hundreds
of eggs.

Police and local newspapers said snake charmer Dudu
Miah captured over 3,500 young cobras at two houses in
Narayanganj near Dhaka.

The find, however, triggered panic among neighbors who
fled their homes, police said.

Newspapers said Miah was called in by Mantu Kasai after
his wife found two large cobras on their property on
Sunday.

Helped by his assistants, Miah dug beneath the floors
of two houses and unearthed the slithering stockpile.

Miah said he would look for more cobras elsewhere in
the neighborhood, but was undecided about what to do
with his catch.

Cobras, which are highly venomous and endemic to
Bangladesh, often nest in houses -- frequently ridding
them of rats and other domestic pests.
 
© Copyright Reuters 2002.
--
From Reuters:
http://reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - a) Big Oil In The Hot Seat b) WANTED: MORE HUNTERS
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
a) Big Oil In The Hot Seat
WASHINGTON, April 30, 2002

When gasoline shot past $2 a gallon last June, oil
companies blamed the price spike on a heavy summer
driving season and depleted inventories, reports CBS
News Correspondent Bob Orr. But a Senate investigation
puts the blame squarely on the oil companies
themselves.

In a scathing report released by a Senate subcommittee,
Big Oil is accused of manipulating the market to drive
up profits. "In a number of instances," the report
concludes, "refiners have sought to increase prices by
reducing supply."

That conclusion will be the topic of hearings that
begin Tuesday, with oil industry executives set to
answer questions from the Senate Governmental Affairs
investigations subcommittee.

In addition to getting to the bottom of things,
Congress also hopes the hearings will put public
pressure on oil companies to do what they can to ensure
this summer's driving season is less painful than last.

The report says a wave of mergers has concentrated the
industry's power. In 1981, a total of 189 firms owned
324 refineries. Twenty years later, there were only 65
oil companies with 155 refineries.

Nowhere is the squeeze greater than in California,
where the report found "prices are higher and more
volatile than the rest of the nation."

Six major refiners account for 90 percent of all of the
gasoline sold in California. And the report cites
internal oil company memos in charging the industry has
purposely sought to keep supplies low.

One Mobil Oil memo labeled "highly confidential" said
"flooding the market and depressing margins would
likely be a big hit and not in Mobil's interest."

"We have documents showing that it is their purpose to
keep supplies as low as possible because when that
happens, when there is an increase in demand, it means
price goes up," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Many of the internal documents came out of a California
lawsuit charging oil companies with collusion, a case
the oil companies ultimately won.

"We have been investigated time and time again and
there has no proof no evidence whatsoever of any anti-
competitive behavior," said Red Cavaney of the American
Petroleum Institute.

But there is some evidence big companies are muscling
out smaller independents – like Bob Vanderbock.

I'm the last of the Mohicans," said Vanderbock.

He says big companies use computers to track and match
competitors' prices, meaning there's no bargain
gasoline available.

"That is the world I live in," Vanderbock says. "I am
controlled by the major oil companies. They have a
legal monopoly."

© MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.

--

b) WANTED: MORE HUNTERS

The U.S. whitetail population is out of control. Not
only are deer starving by the thousands, they're laying
waste to entire ecosystems. There is only one solution.

By Ted Williams

No species in North America has been more grotesquely
mismanaged than deer. The mismanagement--ongoing--began
with a crusade by the early settlers against cougars
and wolves, the main predators of deer. This behavior
flabbergasted the Indians. After much arguing and
theorizing, they decided it was a symptom of insanity.

Read it in the Audubon Magazine:
http://magazine.audubon.org/incite/incite0203.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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                   12 May 2002

On this day in 1951,1st Hydrogen
Bomb was tested on Enewetak Atoll
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- recreant
2. Graphic of the Day -- Road Kill, 28 April 2002
3. Quote of the Day -- Robert Wrigley
4. HotSites - Death
5. Weird News - They'll Be The Death Of You
6. Reading List - Pollution Killing Kids
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
recreant (REK-ree-uhnt) adjective

   1. Unfaithful or disloyal to a belief, duty, or cause.

   2. Craven or cowardly.

noun

   1. A faithless or disloyal person.

   2. A coward.

[Middle English, from Old French, present participle of recroire, to
remember, from Medieval Latin recredere, to yield, pledge : Latin re-,
re- + Latin credere, to believe.]

   "Tyler, seeking a less imperial president and a stronger states' rights
   policy, joined a small group of Jacksonians who deserted the fold and
   eventually became known as southern states' rights Whigs. In 1836, the
   Jacksonian-controlled Virginia legislature demanded and secured the
   recreant's senatorial resignation."
   Tyler, John, The Reader's Companion to American History, 1 Jan 1991.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphic of the Day -- Geranium, 2002
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Road Kill, 28 April 2002
http://www.lhostelaw.com/rk/0204rk.htm

Last Issue:
Geranium Buds, 2002
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204geraniumbuds.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Robert Wrigley
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Other World
      by Robert Wrigley

So here is the old buck
       who all winter long
had traveled with the does
       and yearlings, with the fawns
just past their spots,
       and who had hung back,
walking where the others had walked,
       eating what they had left,
and who had struck now and then
       a pose against the wind,
against a twig-snap or the way
       the light came slinking
among the trees.

Here is the mangled ear
       and the twisted, hindering leg.
Here, already bearing him away
       among the last drifts of snow
and the nightly hard freezes,
       is a line of tiny ants,
making its way from the cave
       of the right eye, over the steep
occipital ridge, across the moonscape, shed-horn
       medallion and through the valley
of the ear's cloven shadow
       to the ground,
where among the staves
       of shed needles and the red earthy wine
they carry him
       bit by gnawn bit
into another world.

from The Atlantic Monthly, November 2001
The Atlantic Monthly

Copyright 2001 by Robert Wrigley.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
Animal Lifespans
http://www.tesarta.com/www/resources/library/lifespans.html

Death and Dying
http://www.globalideasbank.org/death.html

Death Clock
http://www.deathclock.com/

The Death Penalty Information Center
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- They'll Be The Death Of You
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Those Boys Really Will Be the Death of You, Mom
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mothers who have complained
through the centuries that their sons will be the death
of them may be right -- a Finnish study published on
Thursday shows having boys shortens a woman's life
span.

Each son takes an average of 34 weeks off a woman's
life span, evolutionary biologist Samuli Helle and
colleagues at the University of Turku found.

On the other hand, having daughters adds, but only very
slightly, to a woman's life span, said the report in
Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Helle, a Ph.D student at the university, was trying to
prove having large families can cause women to die
early. But his study of church records among the Sami
people of northern Scandinavia found that family size
could not predict reliably that a woman would die
young.

"We found that maternal longevity was not related to
the total number of children born or raised to
adulthood, suggesting that large families were raised
by wealthy individuals," the researchers wrote in their
report.

"That's a bit surprising ... because theory predicts
there should be a negative effect," Helle said in a
telephone interview.

"But I think, in our case because we have no data about
individual wealth, it would be that those with the
highest status and wealth could afford both to have
many children and had a long life span."

Helle and colleagues looked at birth and marriage
records of Sami people from 1640 to 1870. "These Sami
depended mainly on reindeer herding, fishing and
hunting for their livelihood and experienced natural
mortality because of a lack of advanced medical care,"
they wrote.

They only looked at women who lived to be over 50, and
took into account whether a woman's husband had died,
since raising a family alone would be stressful.

"Our results suggest that giving birth to sons had a
higher relative long-term survival cost for mothers
than giving birth to and raising daughters," they
wrote.

There could be biological reasons for this. Studies
show boys are physiologically more demanding to produce
-- they grow bigger and faster in the womb, and some
studies show it takes a woman longer to get pregnant
again after having a son than after having a daughter.

Testosterone produced by the fetus could suppress the
mother's immune system and perhaps make her more
susceptible to disease, Helle's team wrote, citing
recent studies that have shown that.

There could be genetic or social differences among the
Sami, who are distinct from their Finnish and Swedish
neighbors, Helle said. But he does not think so.

"There is no reason to believe that this effect would
be only visible in Sami people," he said.

He thinks it could be simple behavior. "Generally, boys
get on their mothers' nerves more than girls because
they are running around, and girls are more willing to
help their mothers," he said.
--
From Reuters:
http://reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - Pollution Killing Kids
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
U.N. Study: Pollution Killing Kids
9 May 2002
By GERALD NADLER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Every day 5,500 children die as a
result of consuming polluted water and food, with those
under 5 years old the most vulnerable, according to a
U.N. study released Thursday.

One billion people, or one-sixth of the world's
population, do not have access to clean drinking water,
said the study prepared by three U.N. agencies.

More appalling, 2.4 billion people lack access to even
a simple latrine, said the report, "Children in the New
Millennium."

"Children are healthier (today). There is more access
to clean water, but these disturbing figures show we
have barely started to address the problem," said Carol
Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations
Children's Fund.

After respiratory infections, the greatest killer of
children is diarrhea, carrying off 2 million a year,
the vast majority in the poorest countries, said the
study by UNICEF, the World Health
Organization and the United Nations
Environment Program.

Other examples of food and water-borne diseases include
cholera, typhoid, polio and roundworm.

"Children in developing countries are some 13 times
more likely to die before they reach their fifth
birthday than their counterparts in developed
countries," it said.

One-third of global diseases are caused by eating
tainted food, drinking unclean water and breathing
polluted air. Forty percent of those getting such
diseases are children under 5, or 600 million children,
the study said.

"Children in developing countries are some 13 times
likely to die before they reach their fifth birthday
than their counterparts in developed countries," it
said.

The 140-page report, focusing on how a degraded
environment affects children.

Millions of children work in agriculture, putting them
at the risk of pesticide poisoning, the report said.

"How sanitary can conditions be when 90 children are
sharing one toilet, or when half of the toilets are not
functioning," the study asked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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                   17 May 2002

         Happy Cuban Peasant Day!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- Rosetta stone
2. Graphics of the Day -- Three Photos
3. Quote of the Day -- Lucia Perillo
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Weird News - Photographer fooled by diameter of nipples
6. Reading List - Global warming thaws tropical ice caps
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
Rosetta stone (ro-ZET-uh stohn) noun

A clue or key that helps in understanding of a
previously insolvable puzzle.

[After Rosetta stone, a black basalt stone tablet found
in 1799 near Rosetta in northern Egypt in the Nile
river delta. The tablet, now held in the British
Museum, has the same message written in two languages
(Egyptian and Greek) using three different scripts
(hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek). Discovery of this
tablet, dating from 196 BC, made possible the
interpretation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.]

You can see a picture of the Rosetta stone at:
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/egyptian/ea/gall/
rosetta.html

"What, I asked, might be an emblematic new policy,
something to symbolise their purpose, just as council
house sales were Mrs Thatcher's Rosetta stone in 1979?"
Polly Toynbee, Tory Heads on the Block, The Guardian
(London), Oct 1, 1999.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- Three Photos
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Photographs by David J. L'Hoste:

I.
Water Lilly
http://www.lhostelaw.com/0205/020426waterlily.htm

II.
Jason Spencer L'Hoste (my nephew)
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204jason3.htm

III.
Spider
http://lhostelaw.com/0205thc/0205spider_gotd.htm

Last Issue:
Road Kill, 28 April 2002
http://www.lhostelaw.com/rk/0204rk.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Lucia Perillo
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Crows Start Demanding Royalties

Of all the birds, they are the ones
who mind their being armless most:
witness how, when they walk, their heads jerk
back and forth like rifle bolts.
How they heave their shoulders into each stride
as if they hoped that by some chance
new bones there would come popping out
with a boxing glove on the end of each.

Little Elvises, the hairdo slicked
with too much grease: they convene on my lawn
to strategize for their class-action suit.
Flight they would trade in a New York minute
for a black muscle car and a fist on the shift
at any stale green light. But here in my yard
by the Jack in the Box dumpster
they can only fossick in the grass for remnants

of the world's stale buns. And this
despite all the crow-poems that have been written
because men like to see themselves as crows
(the head-jerk performed in the rear-view mirror,
the dark brow commanding the rainy weather.)
So I think I know how they must feel:
ripped-off, shook down, taken to the cleaners.
What they'd like to do now is smash a phone against a wall.
But they can't, so each one flies to a bare branch and screams.

Lucia Perillo
Northwest Review
Volume 40, Number 1
2002

Copyright © 2002 by Northwest Review.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
50 Greatest Shows Of All Time
http://www.tvguide.com/50th/features/020429a.asp

Smithsonian Institute's History Wired
http://historywired.si.edu/index.html

HubbleSite
http://hubble.stsci.edu/
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- Photographer fooled by diameter of nipples
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Sunbather Mistaken for Kournikova Due to Nipples
Wed May 15,12:21 PM ET By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A St. Louis jewelry salesman who
sold Penthouse Magazine a video of a topless sunbather
misidentified as Anna Kournikova testified on Tuesday
he mistook the woman for the tennis star because of the
diameter of her nipples.

Frank Ramaesiri, the salesman, testified at a hearing
to determine whether Penthouse will be forced to recall
unsold issues of June magazine which carries about a
dozen photos of the sunbather, who is actually Judith
Soltesz-Benetton, the daughter-in-law of Italian
fashion designer Luciano Benetton.

Last week Penthouse, which is owned by financially
troubled General Media Communications, acknowledged its
mistake and issued a public apology. However both women
are pursuing cases against the magazine, whose
circulation has dropped to about 650,000 a month from
almost 5 million.

Auditors for General Media said in the company's annual
report that it may be taken over by its trustee, Bank
of New York, if it cannot make its debt payments.

Tuesday's hearing stemmed from Soltesz-Benetton's
lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court. Last week the
judge in the case stopped Penthouse from posting the
photos on the Internet and he must now rule on whether
Penthouse should have its distributor recall the June
issue.

The sale date of the issue, whose cover carried the
headline "Exclusive Anna Kournikova Caught Close Up on
Nude Beach," was April 30 and it is unclear how many
issues are already in the hands of readers or on sale
at retailers.

Plaintiff's lawyer Judd Burstein said that although
Kournikova began questioning the validity of the
photographs as early as April 24 and denied they were
of her on April 26 Penthouse did nothing to stop
distribution. He alleged this was done to boost sales
and avoid a financial disaster.

Penthouse founder Bob Guccione acknowledged on the
stand that while the magazine can try to get remaining
issues back from wholesalers, it has no access to
retailers.

Although a recall at this point may have little
financial impact on Penthouse, the magazine could be
hit with monetary damages from the Soltesz-Benetton
case in New York or Kournikova's lawsuit in California.

Soltesz-Benetton, 28, alleged in her lawsuit that the
video was taken while she was sunbathing topless in
Miami about seven years ago. She alleged the
unauthorized publication of the photos violated her
privacy and that the photos were used for advertising
purposes without her consent.

The plaintiff contended the article accompanying the
photos was not a real news story but an advertisement
aimed at selling the video from which the pictures were
taken.

The suit, which seeks more than $10 million in damages,
argued that the magazine rushed to run the pictures
without confirming they were actually of Kournikova.

Penthouse argued it tried to verify the pictures and
that they were used to illustrate a legitimate news
article.

Guccione testified that he spent five or six days
comparing the video to Internet photos of Kournikova.
Although Burstein seemed incredulous his client could
be mistaken for Kournikova, Guccione maintained there
were similarities in their faces, rib cages and how
they extended their pinkies.

The article's author Annette Witheridge testified she
had been asked by Penthouse to write an article to
accompany the photos. She said she had felt the
pictures were more important than the words and that
she had been told by Penthouse not to contact
Kournikova.

She said Kournikova's quotes in the article --
including one in which the tennis diva reportedly
praised her own breasts -- all came from the Internet
or published sources and that she had not checked to
confirm the accuracy of the quotes.

Ramaesiri, who is not a professional photographer,
testified that he had videotaped some topless
sunbathers several years ago. When he was reviewing the
tape earlier this year, he saw a woman he thought was
Kournikova and contacted Penthouse. "I couldn't believe
it, it was a match," he testified.

Burstein asked Ramaesiri what had led him to the
conclusion the woman was Kournikova. The salesman
replied there were several reasons including that the
sunbather looked Russian, appeared to be seeking
privacy and because of the size of her nipples.

He said that while he had never seen Kournikova at a
tournament, he had seen a photo of her on the Internet
in which her tennis dress was soaked with sweat,
revealing the shape of her nipples. "They were pretty
evident ... the diameter matched what we had on film,"
he said.

Ramaesiri said Penthouse flew him to New York where he
met with Guccione. He said Penthouse asked him if the
video was time stamped. When he said it was not,
Ramaesiri said the magazine did not ask for further
proof as to when the video was shot. He said his
payment included Super Bowl tickets.

The salesman, wiping tears from his eyes, called
himself an "idiot" and apologized to the women and
Guccione in court.

"It was unfathomable that it wasn't Anna Kournikova,"
he said. "Until I saw Ms. Benetton I though it was Ms.
Kournikova. I'm probably the last to know. I'm very
sorry I made a mistake."
--
From Reuters:
http://reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - Global warming thaws tropical ice caps
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Global warming thaws tropical ice caps

The famous snows of Kilimanjaro are rapidly receding,
according to Lonnie Thompson, a professor of geological
sciences. At least one-third of the massive ice field
atop Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa has melted
over the past dozen years. Since the glacier was first
mapped in 1912, about 82 percent of it has been lost.
Kilimanjaro joins the list of ice caps atop mountains
in Africa and South America that Thompson and others
predict to disappear over the next 15 years as a result
of global warming.

Peru's Quelccaya ice cap in the Southern Andes
Mountains has shrunk by at least 20 percent since 1963.
Most disconcerting, Thompson warns, is that the rate of
decline for one of the main glaciers flowing out from
the ice cap, Qori Kalis, has been 32 times greater in
the past three years than it was in the period between
1963 and 1978.

Scientists have long predicted that the first signs of
climate change will appear at the fragile high-altitude
glaciers within the tropics. The thaw of the
Kilimanjaro and Quelccaya ice caps are the most
dramatic evidence to date.

"These glaciers are very much like the canaries once
used in coal mines," Thompson said. "They're an
indicator of massive changes taking place and a
response to the changes in climate in the tropics."

As the glaciers recede, so will the amount of water
that feeds rivers and valleys below the mountaintops.

"The loss of these frozen reservoirs threaten water
resources for hydroelectric power production in the
region and for crop irrigation and municipal water
supplies," Thompson said. It is likely that many
developing countries will replace the power source by
burning more fossil fuels.

"What they're really doing now is cashing in on a bank
account that was built over thousands of years but
isn't being replenished. Once it's gone, it will be
difficult to re-form."
--
From Environmental News Network:
http://www.enn.com/index.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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                   29 May 2002

         On this day in 1848 Wisconsin
              became the 30th state.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- nadir
2. Graphics of the Day -- Body Parts
3. Quote of the Day -- Bob Hicok
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Weird News - Poached Eggs
6. Reading List - Harper's Index
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
nadir (NAY-duhr, NAY-deer)
noun
1. The point on the celestial sphere directly below the observer, opposite the zenith.
2. The lowest point. [From Middle English, from Middle French, from Arabic nazir (opposite).]

 "From its nadir in 1988 - two years after the Tax Reform Act removed many incentives for
investing and ushered in an era of downsizing, mergers and loss of industrial leadership
to Japan, America has shaken off its malaise and come storming back."
Nicholas Valery, Innovation in Industry: Something in the Air,
The Economist (London) Feb 20, 1999.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- Body Parts
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Body Parts:
http://lhostelaw.com/0205bp/0205bodyparts.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

Last Issue:
Photographs by David J. L'Hoste:
Water Lilly
http://www.lhostelaw.com/0205/020426waterlily.htm
Jason Spencer L'Hoste (my nephew)
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204jason3.htm
Spider
http://lhostelaw.com/0205thc/0205spider_gotd.htm
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Bob Hicok
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Edge

One day the kid showed up with a tattoo of a stapler
on his shoulder. The others had tattoos of geckos
and fish and the Incredible Hulk, an emerald
Lou Ferigno against a background of fire. He'd
have been beaten up except they were dazed by it,
not just the precise cursive of the word Swingline
or the luster of the striking plate but the fact
of the stapler itself. He got the last pizza
at lunch and was touched on the wrist by a girl
at the fountain. This made him believe he was real
in a way breathing never had. Over the next
few months he stopped feeling he lived
on the wrong side of the mirror. There
was an election & his name was penciled in
on a few ballots. The guy with the red Camaro
gave him a ride home and let him pick the music.
In second period French he stood to ask
what Harcourt Brace knew all men wanted to know,
if Monique and Evette would join him Saturday
on the sailboat. First the teacher cried,
then the students sang the Marseillaise
because in four years all he'd ever said
was como tallez vous? No one questioned the tattoo.
Who'd believe he got up to pee and it was there,
just as the image of the body of Christ
appeared one morning on the thigh
of St. Barthelme of Flours. Otherwise
their stories differ. St. Barthelme was stoned
to death. The kid went to homecoming in a tux
with blue cumulus cuffs and a girl
embarrassed by anything but the slowest dance.

Bob Hicok
The Iowa Review
Volume 32, Number 1
Spring 2002

Copyright © 2002 by the University of Iowa.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
Bartleby.com:
http://www.bartleby.com/

U.S. Gazetteer:
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer

U.S. Supreme Court Justices:
http://oyez.nwu.edu/justices/justices.cgi?command=list_chrono

Math In Daily Life:
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/dailymath/

--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- Poached Eggs
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Gurkhas Called Up in Fight Against Egg Poaching
Tue May 28

LONDON (Reuters) - Bird conservationists have turned to
one of the British army's most fearsome regiments, the
Gurkhas, to help in their fight against egg thieves.

Inspectors from the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds (RSPB) will not actually wield the soldiers'
famous kukri daggers, but they will be trained in
camouflage and surveillance by the Nepalese troops.

The Gurkhas' base in the south of England is ideally
placed to help protect rare birds like the Marsh
Harrier, said RSPB spokesman Graham Madge Tuesday.

RSPB officers will hide in undergrowth and photograph
potential thieves passing near endangered birds' nests,
using skills taught by the Gurkha signals brigade,
soldiers accustomed to operating way behind enemy
lines.

"The sort of message that we want to give egg
collectors is that we want to stamp out this nefarious
practice ... which is why we are going to the Gurkhas,"
Madge said.

"The soldiers who are going to be doing the training
have seen action in East Timor (news - web sites),
Bosnia and Sierra Leone. We couldn't have hoped to be
trained by anyone better."

Egg-collecting threatens to kill off several
populations of endangered birds in the UK, Madge said,
adding that it was hard to understand the habit.

The RSPB says there is no significant market for stolen
eggs, and that thieves cannot display their trophies
because taking endangered birds' eggs is illegal in
Britain.

British courts have cracked down on egg collectors in
the past year, handing out the first jail sentence for
nest-raiding last September, but only two weeks ago a
pair of Osprey (news - web sites) nests were robbed in
Scotland.
--
From Reuters:
http://reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - Harper's Index
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Amount that U.S. companies are projected to write off
this year to account for devalued acquisitions :
$1,000,000,000,000

Number of times between 1998 and 2000 that errors or
irregularities forced publicly traded firms to
restate earnings : 463

Number of times this happened in the seven
previous years : 359

Number of years that the University of Missouri's
Kenneth L. Lay Chair in International Economics
has been vacant : 3.5

Number of Argentina's 17 presidents since 1958 who
have completed a full term : 1

Number of former Khmer Rouge officers whom
Cambodia has tried : 0

Number of Israeli military personnel jailed since
September 2000 for refusing to serve in the
Occupied Territories : 34

Minimum number of Israeli high school students who
wrote Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last fall to refuse
in advance : 62

Ratio of the President's proposed increase in U.S.
military spending to China's total military budget
in 2000 : 1:1

Rank of China's military budget among the world's
largest that year : 3

Estimated amount the United States spends each year
safeguarding oil supplies in the Persian Gulf : $50,000,000,000

Estimated value of U.S. crude-oil imports from the
region last year : $19,000,000,000

Number of times "evil" has been cited in State
of the Union addresses by George W. Bush and
Bill Clinton, respectively : 5, 2

Estimated total number of calories Congress burned
giving Bush's last address 46 standing ovations :
22,000

Percentage by which genetically modified seeds
increase a farm's economic yield, according to
a study of 300 Iowa farms : 0

Days earlier than in 1970 that Washington, D.C.,
cherry blossoms now bloom : 6

Amount the Justice Department spent in November
installing curtains to cover two seminude
statues of Justice : $8,650

Number of visitors to a Las Vegas consumer-electronics
show last winter who opted to be shot with
a stun gun : 120

Number of these who were journalists : 6

Number of accidents the U.S. nuclear submarine
that capsized a Japanese fishing boat last year has had
since then : 2

Minimum number of calls the F.B.I. received last
winter from Utah residents claiming to have seen
Osama bin Laden : 20

Number of people charged between 1988 and 1992 in
connection with the U.S. savings and loan collapse :
1,098

Ratio of the average S&L jail term awarded in
those years to the average term for a federal burglary
conviction : 2:3

Fine paid by Neil Bush in 1991 after federal regulators
found him guilty of "ethical lapses" : $50,000

Minimum number of violations for which the Securities
and Exchange Commission cited George W. Bush in
the same year : 4

Number of George H.W. Bush's five adult grandchildren
who have been arrested : 3

Number who have only been ticketed for
sexual misconduct : 1

Number who avoided charges after being forgiven by a
girlfriend for breaking into her house : 1
--
From Harper's Magazine: http://www.harpers.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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                   20 June 2002

      On this day in 1863 West Virginia
             became the 35th state.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- houri
2. Graphics of the Day -- Plant Patterns
3. Quote of the Day -- Elton Glaser
4. HotSites - European Sports
5. Weird News - Dear Abby letter leads to arrest
6. Reading List - Out of breath in America
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
houri (HOOR-ee) noun

   1. One of the beautiful virgins provided for faithful Muslims in the
      Koranic paradise.

   2. A voluptuously attractive young woman.

[From French, from Persian huri, from Arabic huri, plural of haura
(dark-eyed woman).]

   "Corn and kitsch mesh seamlessly with art and virtuosity. Suspended
   from a swinging chandelier, a voluptuous houri, trailing clouds of
   veils, undulates to the music of the Ave Maria -- with a disco tom-tom
   backbeat."
   Howard G. Ghua-Eoan, The Moscow Circus Returns, Time (New York),
   Sep 19, 1988.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- Plant Patterns
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Plant Patterns:
http://www.lhostelaw.com/0206pp/0206pp.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

Last Issue:
Photographs by David J. L'Hoste:
Body Parts:
http://lhostelaw.com/0205bp/0205bodyparts.htm
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Elton Glaser
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Smoking
by Elton Glaser

I like the cool and heft of it, dull metal on the palm,
And the click, the hiss, the spark fuming into flame,
Boldface of fire, the rage and sway of it, raw blue at the base
And a slope of gold, a touch to the packed tobacco, the tip
Turned red as a warning light, blown brighter by the breath,
The pull and the pump of it, and the paper's white
Smoothed now to ash as the smoke draws back, drawn down
To the black crust of lungs, tar and poisons in the pink,
And the blood sorting it out, veins tight and the heart slow,
The push and wheeze of it, a sweep of plumes in the air
Like a shako of horses dragging a hearse through the late centennium,
London, at the end of December, in the dark and fog.

from Winter Amnesties
Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL
Copyright 2000 by Elton Glaser.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- European Sports
`````````````````````````````````````````````
**********Soccer***********

World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/

BBC/World Cup
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/default.stm

World Cup History
http://www.worldcup.isn.pl/

*********Cycling***********

Tour de France
http://www.letour.fr/indexus.html

Giro d'Italia
http://www.gazzetta.it/speciali/giro2002/

La Vuelta Espana
http://www.lavuelta.com/ingles/index.html

OLN TV
http://www.olntv.com/

VeloNews
http://www.velonews.com/

--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- Dear Abby letter leads to arrest
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
'Dear Abby' Confessor Sentenced for Pornography
Wed Jun 19, 6:05 AM ET

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Reuters) - A man who confessed his
pedophile fantasies to advice columnist "Dear Abby,"
who then turned him in to police, pleaded guilty on
Tuesday to child pornography charges.

Paul Weiser, 28, had written in March to "Dear Abby," a
syndicated advice column written by Jeanne Phillips,
about his desires for his girlfriend's 3- and 10-year-
old daughters. Phillips alerted police though she said
at the time she was "torn" about breaking her pledge of
confidentiality to advice seekers.

Police raided Weiser's home and found lewd photographs
of children on his computer. He admitted penning the
letter to "Dear Abby," which she did not answer.

Weiser pleaded guilty to three counts of child
pornography in Milwaukee County Court, and was
sentenced to one year of house arrest and eight years
of probation, prosecutor Paul Tiffin said. He was also
told not to use a computer or the Internet and to have
no contact with children.

If he violates probation, Weiser could be ordered to
serve a 12-year prison term, Tiffin said.
--
From Reuters:
http://reuters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - Out of breath in America
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Out of breath in America
Texas rancher tries to fight back as his family chokes on the legacy of Bush's
business-first pollution policies
by William Walker
WASHINGTON BUREAU
ROCKDALE, Texas

Do his grandchildren have the right to breathe clean air?
That question is at the core of Wayne Brinkley's high-noon
showdown with Texas aluminum giant Alcoa.

Taylor, 6, Chase, 4, and Emma-Jo, 2, live with their
mother, Brinkley's daughter, Wendy, in a second house
on the 116-hectare ranch that's been owned by the
family for more than a century. Brinkley and his wife,
Bonnie, live in the main house.

About 50 years ago, Alcoa bought 2,833 hectares and
built America's largest aluminum smelting facility less
than three kilometres from the Brinkley ranch. Burning
high-sulphur lignite, or "brown coal," the plant runs
24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Texas Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility alliance and
other groups have identified it as the biggest air
polluter in Texas.

Chase and Emma-Jo have developed asthma that has
required visits to the emergency ward. Doctors say it's
caused by the acrid air that floats from the Alcoa
stacks over the ranch.

Taylor deals with it a bit better, but all the kids
sometimes get severe nosebleeds and feel nauseated.
Their mom often makes them play inside.

Brinkley's fight, made more difficult during George W.
Bush's tenure as Texas governor from 1995 to 2000,
offers a glimpse of the pollution problems Canadians
could find wafting north of the border under this
administration.

"When I saw Bush running for president, I knew we were
in trouble. But I knew we were in trouble when he was
governor here in Texas," Brinkley says matter-of-factly
in the office of his Rockdale building-supplies
company.

"Bush? All he cares about is keeping the economy going,
and to do that he wants to allow big business to do
anything they want.

"But he doesn't care about the individual people, if
they get sick and what they have to put up with. He's
from big oil, you know.

"He's dumb when it comes to stuff like this," Brinkley
says, looking fed up. "He should be looking after the
welfare of the people. Instead, he just sits on the
fence and never gets off one way or the other. He's
going to find out soon enough that big business isn't
the way to go."

Brinkley is riled up, as they say in Texas, and for
good reason. His ranch is just outside Rockdale, down
two back roads and along a dirt track. Cattle graze in
the field between the two houses.

The red-haired grandkids have a swing set and backyard
trampoline.

It's a picturesque, rolling property, except for
Alcoa's smokestacks looming on the horizon. The tart
air makes the eyes water and the heavy smell can induce
nausea in an empty stomach.

Those stacks, so close it seems you could reach out and
touch them, pump out more than 104,000 tonnes of
pollution each year, including 60,000 tonnes of sulphur
dioxide, which can cause chronic lung disease.

Brinkley just wants Alcoa to obey the law. After all,
his family was here first. But given Bush's
environmental record as Texas governor Ñ U.S.
environmentalists call him "the Toxic Texan" Ñ and his
record running for president and since, the rancher is
clearly in a David-and-Goliath struggle.

As a presidential candidate, Bush opposed bans on
logging in national forests, lobbied to weaken the
clean-air act and offered no clean-water plan. He
argued for "more flexibility" in government pollution
regulations and wanted liability protection for
polluting companies.

Within months of taking over the White House in
January, 2001, Bush ripped up his campaign promise to
reduce carbon-dioxide emissions that cause global
warming (reductions opposed by the oil industry),
announced that the United States had abandoned the
Kyoto accord to limit greenhouse gases, thwarted a
tighter limit on arsenic in drinking water and promoted
a plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge.

Critics like Brinkley say such actions are consistent
with Bush's performance as governor. A former oil man
himself, Bush favoured coal and oil development in the
state over clean air, to the point that, in 1999,
Houston overtook Los Angeles as America's most polluted
city. Texas has twice as many industrial polluters Ñ
about 100 Ñ violating clean-air rules than any other
U.S. state.

The North American Commission on Environmental Co-
operation recently cited Texas as having America's
highest level of air and water pollution.

Every major city in Texas Ñ including Houston, Dallas,
El Paso, San Antonio and Austin, together home to 65
per cent of the state's residents Ñ has been declared
in "non-attainment" of federal Environmental Protection
Act standards for the minimum air quality required to
protect public health.

But the worst offender is Rockdale's giant Alcoa plant.

In the 1950s, the company discovered an abundant supply
of combustible lignite on the site that could be mined
to provide cheap power for a giant aluminum smelter,
adding to profits that topped $1 billion (all figures
U.S.) last year.

In 1971, state legislators passed a clean-air law, but
already established plants, like the Rockford smelter,
were exempted.

Then, with Bush in the Austin governor's mansion, a new
generation of Texas legislators tried to close those
old loopholes. But Bush decided to maintain the
"grandfather" exemption for the Alcoa facility, along
with dozens of other industrial plants.

He told the New York Times that the more stringent
rules were "bad for business."

The exempted polluters had been heavy cash contributors
to his gubernatorial and presidential campaigns.

In fact, records show that the so-called political
action committees (PACs) and lobbyists for the top 100
grandfathered companies donated more than $670,000 to
Bush's gubernatorial campaigns.

Those companies include some of the state's largest
industrial polluters Ñ Texas Utilities, Dow Chemical,
Lyondell Petrochemical and Exxon, as well as Alcoa.

Grandfathered polluters contributed as much as $10
million over six years to Bush, his successor, Governor
Rick Perry and state legislators in both houses,
according to the Public Research Works environmental
lobby.

The companies were so pleased with Bush that, when he
was preparing to run for president in 1999, they lined
up to fork over more cash.

Bush's presidential campaign received $169,400 from
officers, or their spouses, of companies operating
grandfathered plants. Two Texas law firms, representing
Alcoa and Texas Utilities, anted up another $146,900,
as Bush's Republican presidential campaign raised
vastly more funds than all his nearest competitors.

Then, shortly after assuming the presidency, Bush named
Alcoa chief executive officer Paul O'Neill as his
treasury secretary.

"When I saw O'Neill get named to the cabinet...."
Brinkley shrugs and is at a loss for words, which is
saying something for this plain-talking Texan.

His main health concerns stem from the lignite, a
yellowish-brown combustible fuel that falls between
coal and peat and burns around the clock at the Alcoa
plant.

Although about 45 per cent of the world's coal supplies
are lignite, most of it hasn't been mined because it is
considered inferior to conventional coal for the
purpose generating electricity.

But Alcoa discovered it isn't inferior for the purpose
of smelting aluminum. And it's cheap.

Lignite requires drying before it can be burned. As the
Brinkleys have discovered, the heating process releases
the strong odours of sulphur dioxide.

When burned, lignite also releases a particularly smoky
plume that reeks of sulphur and drives Brinkley's
grandchildren from their play.

"I don't like it when mom makes us come inside," Taylor
says. "But it smells bad."

Several times, Wendy Brinkley has taken Chase and Emma-
Jo to the emergency ward of the local hospital after
their breathing became laboured. They were suffering
from respiratory infections.

One morning, Brinkley says, the family's two vehicles,
one maroon and the other black, looked like "there'd
been a snowfall on them, except it was so fine we
couldn't even grab it in our hands."

It was ash from the burned lignite.

The biggest problem is sulphur dioxide.

Health Canada describes it as a substance that becomes
"problematic at higher concentrations," usually after
being produced by industry, and says it causes
breathing problems, headaches and nausea. The agency
warns there is some evidence that elevated sulphur
dioxide levels may increase hospital admissions and
premature deaths.

Brinkley's grandkids regularly experience nausea,
headaches and breathing difficulties. Doctors advised
the family to get a nebulizer, a small device commonly
used by asthmatics, for the two younger children.
Taylor calls it "the breathing machine."

When Alcoa's sulphur-dioxide emissions trigger
particularly bad breathing bouts, Chase and Emma-Jo
have to be brought inside and put on the nebulizer to
have their normal breathing restored.

"Emma screams. She hates it," Taylor says.

Alcoa officials deny any wrongdoing. Spokesman Jim
Hodson says he doesn't understand the Brinkleys'
complaints. "Our monitoring equipment near the site
showed that emissions were below state and federal
health standards," he says.

Frustrated with Alcoa's repeated denials, the Brinkleys
recently tried a new strategy, filing official
complaints with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation
Commission (TNRCC), an environmental watchdog agency.

Late last year, TNRCC investigators Jack Chaneyworth
and Jess Kelly responded to one of the Brinkleys'
complaints about the bad smell.

They visited the ranch and reported that "the sulphur
odours were very strong.... We both noticed that we had
slight headaches and Jess Kelly indicated he felt
slightly nauseous." The report judged Alcoa guilty of
"nuisance levels of sulphur dioxide-type odours."

Investigator Ross Mitchell investigated another
complaint and noted "a sulphur odour sufficient to
constitute a nuisance condition." Mitchell then visited
the plant and encountered Alcoa official Randy
Waclawczyk, who told him the company was in compliance.

"I expressed my concern," Mitchell writes in his
report, "and his response was that it (the facility)
was grand- fathered."

It gets worse.

Alcoa finally decided the best way to deal with the
Brinkleys was to offer a land "swap" that would move
them away from the prevailing northeast winds that blow
the pollution onto their property.

The contract Wayne and Wendy Brinkley were asked to
sign included this clause: "That the Brinkley family
agrees to withdraw from any complaints to all
regulatory agencies against Alcoa upon the closing of
the actual land transfer transaction. The Brinkley
family also agrees not to initiate complaints against
Alcoa pertaining to the Brinkley family property after
execution of the real estate contract."

Brinkley wonders, if Alcoa has nothing to worry about,
why it also included this clause: "The Brinkley family
agrees to amicably exist with Alcoa. The Brinkley
family agrees not to initiate any new legal complaints
as a condition of this property transaction. This shall
remain in force for 35 years from the closing date."

"They want us to sign something that says we will never
complain, we will never sue if one of my children
develops an illness down the road," Wendy says, her
eyes wide with incredulity.

"They want us to keep our mouths shut and never
complain again. If something happens to my children, I
want to do what's right."

Adds her father: "We have completely turned it down.
The negotiations are over and we're going on with our
lives. We were there first. This is my family's land.
We won't sign anything that gives our rights away if
something happens to one of our grandchildren."

A local group called Neighbors For Neighbors Ñ with
which the Brinkleys are not affiliated Ñ has launched a
multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Alcoa, saying the
company violated its right to be grandfathered by Bush
when it spent millions in the 1980s to upgrade the
Rockdale plant and increase its output.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
state TNRCC notified Alcoa on Jan. 9 that it was
violating both state and federal clean-air laws with
those equipment upgrades.

Alcoa's response was that it would spend some more
money, by 2007, to lower emissions. Company officials
are confident that approach will be approved. In Bush's
Texas, they're probably right.

After all, the EPA's frustrated chief enforcement
officer resigned in March, saying the Bush
administration is undermining anti-pollution efforts at
plants that violate clean-air laws.

Now comes word that Bush's new action on the
environment would actually allow dirtier air, setting a
higher target for pollution levels by 2018 than the
target for 2012 under current federal regulations.
Oddly, the policy is named the "Clean Skies
Initiative."

And just last week, the EPA announced it will allow
older coal-burning power plants to escape pollution-
control regulations Ñ a move that's a mirror image of
Alcoa's treatment in Rockdale.

The Bush White House says the move is designed to keep
electric utility bills in check for consumers. The EPA
would not predict how the environment will be affected,
although pollution control activists say the move will
worsen asthma and other respiratory ailments.

That could be bad news for Chase and Emma-Jo.

"You wouldn't believe the number of people in our
county who've died of cancer, of heart problems and
lung problems," says Wayne Brinkley.

"It's just worse than it's ever been."
--
From the Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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                   28 June 2002
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- pertinacious
2. Graphics of the Day -- June Abstracts and Tulip
3. Quote of the Day -- Steve Kowit
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Humor - W, as in Forwin Policy
6. Reading List - Carl Hiaasen on aid to Haiti
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
pertinacious (pur-tn-AY-shuhs) adjective

   1. Holding resolutely to a purpose, belief or opinion.

   2. Stubbornly unyielding.

[From Latin pertinac- pertinax, per-, thoroughly + tenax, tenacious
(tenere, to hold).]

   "A man is pertinacious when he defends his folly and trusts too greatly
   in his own wit."
   Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales: Explicit Secunda Pars Penitentie:
   Part I, 1387-1400 (Translation: Walter W. Skeat).
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- Plant Patterns
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
June Abstracts:
http://lhostelaw.com/0206/0206abs.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

Tulip:
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204tulip5.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

Last Issue:
Plant Patterns:
http://www.lhostelaw.com/0206pp/0206pp.htm
by David J. L'Hoste
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Steve Kowit
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Notice
by Steve Kowit

This evening, the sturdy Levi's
I wore every day for over a year
& which seemed to the end
in perfect condition,
suddenly tore.
How or why I don't know,
but there it was: a big rip at the crotch.
A month ago my friend Nick
walked off a racquetball court,
showered,
got into this street clothes,
& halfway home collapsed & died.
Take heed, you who read this,
& drop to your knees now & again
like the poet Christopher Smart,
& kiss the earth & be joyful,
& make much of your time,
& be kindly to everyone,
even to those who do not deserve it.
For although you may not believe
it will happen,
you too will one day be gone,
I, whose Levi's ripped at the crotch
for no reason,
assure you that such is the case.
Pass it on.

from The Dumbbell Nebula, 2000
Heyday Books
Copyright 2000 by Steve Kowit.
All rights reserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
Greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century:
http://www.greatachievements.org/

TV Guide:
http://www.tvguide.com/

The Internet Archive:
http://www.archive.org/
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Humor -- W, as in Forwin Policy
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
"Do you have blacks, too?" —George W. Bush, to
Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Nov. 8, 2001, as
reported in an April 28, 2002, Estado Sao Pauloan
column by Fernando Pedreira, a close friend of
President Cardoso

"I understand that the unrest in the Middle East
creates unrest throughout the region." —George W. Bush,
Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

"There's nothing more deep than recognizing Israel's
right to exist. That's the most deep thought of all.
... I can't think of anything more deep than that
right." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 13,
2002

"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we
should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible
disease." —George W. Bush, at a news conference in
Europe, June 14, 2001

"Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican."
—George W. Bush, declining to take reporters' questions
during a photo op with Canadian Prime Minister Jean
Chretien, April 21, 2001

"My trip to Asia begins here in Japan for an important
reason. It begins here because for a century and a half
now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and
enduring alliances of modern times. From that alliance
has come an era of peace in the Pacific." —George W.
Bush, who apparently forgot about a little something
called World War II, Tokyo, Feb. 18, 2002

"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."
—George W. Bush, as quoted by the New York Daily News,
April 23, 2002

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - U.S. denies crucial funds to help Haiti
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

U.S. denies crucial funds to help Haiti
CARL HIAASEN
Posted on Sun, Jun. 16, 2002

Children lie sick and dying this morning on Haiti's
central plateau, which will surprise no one familiar
with the wretched conditions there.

What's shocking, though, is that they're suffering in
increasing numbers because the U.S. government has
deliberately blocked millions in international loans to
the hemisphere's poorest nation.

A vital chunk of that money was earmarked for Haiti's
health-care system, strapped in the best of times but
now on the brink of collapse.

''I have worked for almost 20 years in Haiti and have
seen U.S. aid flow smoothly and generously during the
years of the Duvalier dictatorship and the military
juntas that followed,'' wrote Dr. Paul Farmer, an
American who directs the Zanmi Lasante clinic.

``As a U.S. physician, I believe it is shameful that
the current embargo has been enforced during the tenure
of a democratically elected government. Such policies
are both unjust and a cause of great harm to the
Haitian population, particularly to those living in
poverty.''

Farmer's organization, Partners in Health, is funded
mostly from private donations and doesn't depend on aid
from the U.S. or Haitian governments. But in recent
months, as Haitian-run clinics have been forced to
close or cut back operations, the caseload at Farmer's
ambulatory clinic has exploded. Staffed to handle
25,000 visits annually, the facility will this year see
more than 120,000 patients, Farmer says. Another
200,000 will be treated in the field by community
health workers.

No one knows how many Hatians elsewhere in the country
can no longer get medical care. Among the rampaging
diseases are tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, meningitis and
polio, which had once been thought to have been
eliminated from the Western Hemisphere.

SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY

These outbreaks, so devastating in Haiti, also pose a
direct threat to countries where Haitians immigrate.
Destination No. 1 is the United States.

That's why it's impossible to understate the stupefying
short-sightedness of the Bush administration, or to
overstate the brutal human consequences of its actions
against Haiti. Almost $150 million in loans from the
Inter-American Development Bank have been bottled up by
the United States. Included in these funds are $22.5
million for medical supplies and clinics and $54
million to improve the potability of the water supply,
a source of deadly epidemics.

Ostensibly, the loans are being held back to force
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to clean up
the chaotic and sometimes violent electoral process.
The country has been in political gridlock since the
2000 parliamentary elections, which many believe were
fixed.

U.S. officials stiffly deny that the aid cutoff is an
embargo, and like to brag that the United States has
spent $300 million on humanitarian aid to Haiti over
the last four years -- about $10 a year per person.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has defended
withholding the money: ``We do not believe enough has
been done yet to move the political process forward to
assure ourselves that additional aid will be used in
the most effective way. . . .''

It's perfectly right to seek an end to thuggery and
election fraud, but it's unconscionable for our
government to punish the sickest and neediest Haitians
to make its point.

The hypocrisy is literally sickening. Haiti wouldn't be
as abysmal as it is today if the United States hadn't
looked the other way for 28 years while the Duvaliers
looted the national treasury, pocketed foreign aid and
assassinated their critics. When it comes to demanding
democracy and human rights abroad, though, the United
States has extremely flexible standards. Powell
chastises Haiti's elected president at the same time
that the Bush administration is snuggling up to a
Chinese regime that imprisons dissidents in mental
asylums.

More ironically, it was an American invasion that
crushed a Haitian military junta and triumphantly
reinstalled Aristide in 1994. Still, he has always been
distrusted by conservatives in Washington, D.C., and
the aid cutoff seems meant as a scolding.

RESISTING PLEAS

Four months ago, the 14 Caricom nations in the
Caribbean begged the United States and Europe to
release international aid to Haiti, before the crisis
there spurs a new exodus of refugees. The request was
denied.

In April, a resolution by the Congressional Black
Caucus urged President Bush to free up funds for
Haitian medical clinics, drinking water and education.
''The difference between life and death,'' said Rep.
Barbara Lee of California.

The White House didn't budge. In May, U.S. Ambassador
Lino Gutierrez declared that access to aid loans ``will
remain limited because the government of Haiti refuses
to adhere to the most basic principles of good
governance.''

As is often true with our embargoes, the people we're
trying to chasten aren't the ones being made to suffer.
''I find this morally repugnant,'' Farmer wrote to a
friend. ``I know we can do better and continue to pray
that we do.''

Meanwhile, the lines at his rural clinic grow longer
and longer. So, too, does the sad list of the dead.
-----------------------------------------------------
© 2001 miamiherald and wire service sources.
All Rights Reserved.
From the Miami Herald: http://www.miami.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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                   11 July 2002

On this day in 1967 the NL beat the AL 2-1
in 15 innings, the Longest All Star Game.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- punchinello
2. Graphics of the Day -- July Abstracts and Blue View
3. Quote of the Day -- Cornelius Eady
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Weirdf News - The Tate values excrement more highly than gold
6. Reading List - God Is Not in the Constitution
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
punchinello (pun-chuh-NEL-o) noun

   1. A short, fat buffoon, principal character in an Italian puppet show.

   2. A grotesque person.

[From Italian (Naples dialect) polecenella (a character in Italian puppet
shows), diminutive of pollecena (turkey pullet), ultimately from Latin
pullus (young chicken). From the resemblance of punchinello's nose to a
turkey's beak.]

   "Unlike Mr. Donahue, she doesn't automatically sympathize with every
   oddball and Punchinello who feels mistreated by `straight society'
   (a phrase, believe it or not, that still rolls off Mr. Donahue's
   tongue)."
   Martha Bayles, Oprah vs. Phil: Warmth Wins Out, The Wall Street Journal
   (New York), Jan 26, 1987.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- July Abstracts and Blue View
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
July Abstracts:
http://lhostelaw.com/0207/0207abs.htm

Blue View:
http://www.lhostelaw.com/0207/0206blueview.htm

Last Issue:
June Abstracts:
http://lhostelaw.com/0206/0206abs.htm
by David J. L'Hoste

Tulip:
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204tulip5.htm
by David J. L'Hoste
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Cornelius Eady
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Manchild
              — for bell hooks

A warning one white friend hisses
To the one standing nearest to me
At an upper-west side newsstand.
As if my ears
Could not cradle human speech.

This is the birth of a regret:
My surprise of the woman on my right
As I reach to buy a paper.
How her "Where?" becomes an "oh."
How they grin,
I am a close call, how they grin,
Pickpocket my ease,
How they
Grin, then push off down the street.
Now I have the rest of Saturday.

Who will touch my hand,
Who will take my quarters,
These clots of syntax
Growing cold in the blush of my palm?

Cornelius Eady
Indiana Review
Writers of Color
Volume 24, Number 1
Spring 2002
Copyright © 2002. The Trustees of Indiana University.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
L'Hoste & Ramsey, L.L.C. legal links:
http://lhostelaw.com/jfw/jfwlaw.htm

1st Headlines:
http://www.1stheadlines.com/

Have a dental question? Ask us.
http://agd.secureforum.com/~smileline
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- The Tate values excrement more highly than gold
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Tate values excrement more highly than gold
By Catherine Milner, Arts Correspondent (Filed:
30/06/2002)

Critics of modern art will at least applaud the irony.
The Tate Gallery has paid £22,300 of public money for a
work that is, quite literally, a load of excrement.

The canned faeces of Piero Manzoni, one of Italy's most
controversial artists, have been bought by the gallery
from a sale at Sotheby's.

Pile of crap: each can contains 30 grams of Manzoni
excrement Can 004 is one of an "edition" of 90 tins of
merda d'artista created by Manzoni in 1961 as an ironic
statement on the art market. Each can contained 30
grams of his faeces and Manzoni sold it for the same
price as if it were gold.

The price paid by the Tate for its merda - £745 per
gram - exceeds, however, the £550 that the contents of
the tin would cost if they were made of 24-carat gold.

The gallery yesterday defended its decision to spend
taxpayers' money on the work. The money for the
purchase came from the Tate's acquisitions budget,
which it receives from the Government.

"The Manzoni was a very important purchase for an
extremely small amount of money: nobody can deny that,"
said a spokesman for the gallery.

"He was an incredibly important international artist.
What he was doing with this work was looking at a lot
of issues that are pertinent to 20th-century art, like
authorship and the production of art. It was a seminal
work."

The purchase is not the only excreta the Tate has in
its collection; it has also bought three paintings by
Chris Ofili featuring elephant dung.

Although the tin was bought in the Italian art sale at
Sotheby's some time ago, the gallery has kept secret
the amount it paid. It put the can on display last year
without making any public announcement.

Last week the gallery denied that it had tried to play
down the purchase. "We buy 500 works a year so we can't
talk about every one," said the spokesman.

Manzoni died, aged just 29, within two years of
creating his tinned art. He was a hard drinker and his
alcohol consumption led to him to suffer from a liver
condition. In a letter to a friend, he explained that
his motivation for tinning his faeces was to expose the
gullible nature of the art-buying public.

"I should like all artists to sell their fingerprints,
or else stage competitions to see who can draw the
longest line or sell their shit in tins," he wrote. "If
collectors really want something intimate, really
personal to the artist, there's the artist's own shit.
That is really his."

The cans were sealed according to industrial standards
and then circulated to museums around the world.

In addition to the Tate, both the Pompidou Museum in
Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York have
bought cans since. At least 45 of the original 90 cans
have exploded, however. This is exactly what Manzoni
intended.

Soon after he created the cans he told a friend "I hope
these cans explode in the vitrines of the collectors."
The Tate Gallery says that it has had no such problems.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/06/30/nart30.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/06/30/ixnewstop.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - God Is Not in the Constitution
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Government Cannot Endorse Any or All Religions
God Is Not in the Constitution
by Nat Hentoff

In 1943, during our war against Hitler, the United
States Supreme Court handed down a decision concerning
the Pledge of Allegiance that created fierce
controversy around the country—just like last week's
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.

The West Virginia Board of Education had expelled
children of Jehovah's Witnesses for refusing to salute
the flag and stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. These
deviants were to be sent to reformatories for
criminally minded juveniles, and their parents were
threatened with prosecutions for causing juvenile
delinquency.

The majority of the Court, in a decision written by
Robert Jackson—later chief American prosecutor at the
Nuremberg trials—defined the very essence of
Americanism as they rebuked the West Virginia Board of
Education and sent those kids back to school:

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional
constellation, it is that no official, high or petty,
can prescribe what shall be orthodox politics,
nationalism, religion, or any other matters of opinion,
or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith
therein."

Full Story: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0227/hentoff.php

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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                   24 July 2002

On this day in 1925, John Scopes was convicted
of teaching evolution in a Tenn. high school
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                    
In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- sycophant
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Neil Carpathios
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Weird News - $46,000 Is Bid for British Toilet
6. Reading List - The Boom or Bush Cycle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
sycophant (SIK-uh-fuhnt, SIE-kuh-) noun

   A servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering
   influential people.

[Latin sycophanta, informer, slanderer, from Greek sukophantes, informer :
sukon, fig + -phantes, one who shows (from phainein, to show).]

   "There are few models around the world of coup plotters who have
   succeeded as civilian administrators. This is in part because dictators
   invariably begin to believe the sycophants who gather around them."
   The Savior Fantasy, The Washington Post, 20 Oct 1999.

--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Fruit Bowl, 2002
http://lhostelaw.com/0207/020713fruit.htm

Tulip Close-up, 2002
http://lhostelaw.com/0204/0204tulip2.htm

July Abstracts Too
http://lhostelaw.com/0207/020713abs.htm

--
Last Issue:
July Abstracts:
http://lhostelaw.com/0207/0207abs.htm

Blue View:
http://www.lhostelaw.com/0207/0206blueview.htm
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day -- Neil Carpathios
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Kindergarten Open House, Observing Art
by Neil Carpathios

This must be what hell is:
to be the man drawn by the child
not yet dextrous enough to keep
his insides within the lines.

One of his eyes floats like a pesky fly
above his head,
his smile starts below his nose but crosses
the border of his face, reaching into space.

He looks like he was drawn on the run,
blurred by wind, or suffers radiation
from a dropped bomb, his body scrambled.
The blue of his shirt is liquid leaking
to the left and right of him, at least obscuring
inner organs surely painfully dislodged.

You want to help but can't
since crayons don't erase.
You want to tell him he really doesn't want
his brains back inside his head,
he's more creative than his buddy pinned
on the wall next to him with perfectly spaced eyes,
nose with nostrils, lips even.

Maybe he's the perfect drawing of a man in love,
all his insides a gooey mess.
Maybe we can't see, off to the side, outside the frame,
the similarly blurred woman telling him
he's loved back.

Maybe the child who drew this is a genius.

This must be what heaven is:
to be stuck this way forever
before the picture starts to focus,
you want to whisper in his ear —
the one connected to his head.

Neil Carpathios
Mid-American Review
Volume XXII, Number 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites -- Miscellany
`````````````````````````````````````````````
All Webby Award Winners:
Education:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/
Education:
http://www.enature.com/
Science:
http://www.becominghuman.org/
Travel:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
--
HotSites Archive: http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_hs.htm
Another: http://lhostelaw.com/ia/ia2/hot_archive.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Weird News -- $46,000 Is Bid for British Toilet
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
$46,000 Is Bid for British Toilet
Tue Jul 23,11:53 AM ET

LONDON (AP) - A former public toilet with a beautiful
view of a beach has become the latest example of
England's overheated real estate market.

The 140-square-foot former men's and women's bathroom
overlooking the coast in Dorset, southwestern England,
went on the market a few weeks ago for $39,000.

But that was before the bidding started.

"We have had several offers already," some rising above
$46,000, real estate agent Roy Wootton said Tuesday.

The single-story building, now privately owned, has
planning permission to be converted into a small chalet
with a 10-foot strip of land for a patio.

"The views are super, with Golden Cap cliff to the
left, the sea and beach to the front, and (the town of)
Lyme Regis to the right," Wootton said. "It has caused
quite a stir since it came on the market."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Reading List - The Boom or Bush Cycle
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
From the L.A. Times

THE ECONOMY The Boom or Bush Cycle
Like father, like son. Expect a war soon. Robert Scheer

July 23 2002

The public's love affair with the Bush administration
is souring. Polls show that voters are deeply worried
about its handling of the economy, although they still
claim to like George W. Bush as a person. It makes
sense, of course, since who doesn't enjoy the company
of a charming confidence man?

In the movie, a rakish George Clooney can play him,
winking and smirking and flirting as he hatches
corporate scams, squanders his friends' money and rides
a friendly Supreme Court into the White House.

Americans are up against the reality that while the son
of old vet Poppy might make for an interesting dinner
guest, telling family war stories and all, like his
father he lacks the seriousness of purpose required to
manage daily life in the real world. And should we
really expect more from men who never had to take out
the garbage, let alone worry about paying the mortgage?
Men for whom the making of money was a game without
real risk or purpose? Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing?
Heck, what's the big deal? When a big corporation goes
under, those with connections get tipped off long
before Joe Shmoe and his pet portfolio. If a Bush loses
liquidity, friends will come running, checkbooks open,
as they did for George W. to pay for his string of
failed Texas investments. Besides, the family trust
fund is where the "real" money is kept.

The Bushes are, as a matter of breeding, terminally
irresponsible. And while being a loose cannon can
sometimes be useful in making war, it is stability and
pragmatism that breed prosperity.

The Bushes' contempt for government regulation of
capitalism has allowed corporate piracy to drive the
nation toward financial ruin. The American public now
stares in disbelief as our infamous boom-Bush cycle
wreaks havoc on its retirement plans and endangers its
jobs. Meanwhile, yet another President George seeks to
distract us with patriotic-sounding gibberish.

"I believe people have taken a step back and asked,
'What's important in life?' " said the president two
weeks ago in Minneapolis. "You know, the bottom line
and this corporate America stuff--is that important? Or
is serving your neighbor, loving your neighbor like
you'd like to be loved yourself?"

Consider the deep cynicism of that statement from a
president who spent most of his adult life milking that
"corporate America stuff" for all it was worth, just as
his super-rich ancestors had always done.

Diffident in the face of the traumas of ordinary
Americans, George W., like his father before him, will
make the times extraordinary. War against Iraq is the
president's much-planned-for answer if the oft-rumored
"economic recovery" doesn't sustain his popularity.

That's what all this talk of Al Qaeda sleeper cells,
homeland security and knocking off Saddam Hussein is
about: a backdrop for the theater of war, a necessary
distraction to a set of domestic policies that has
failed miserably. The massive tax cut brought us
nothing but soaring national debt, Alan Greenspan has
been revealed as an impotent Wizard of Oz and the
Republican magic bullet of monetarism has proved a
bust.

But while the end of Hussein's tyranny would certainly
be a cause for cheers, the harsh truth is that the most
exhaustive investigation in human history hasn't found
a single credible thread connecting him with our
current troubles.

In fact, if we are honest, the closest we can come to
an identifiable foreign enemy is Saudi Arabia, where
the Bushes love to do business and from whence the men
and money came to destroy the World Trade Center.

The president should heed the call of Richard Grasso,
chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, who said on
Sunday, "We've got to wage a war against terrorism in
the boardroom, against misleading investors." But to
wage that fight, Bush would have to get rid of the
corporate hustlers who dominate economic policy in his
administration.

So get out the yellow ribbons and cheer those fireworks
over Baghdad.

After all, a victory party might take some of the sting
off the fact that your hard-earned retirement chest is
nothing but a wistful memory.

*
Robert Scheer writes a syndicated column. If you want
other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting
this article, go to www.lats.com/rights.
-----
Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times

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